VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS. feg 



bfg the handle; cab the sharp edge; chf the back of the knife, which must have 

 the same curve as the back of the cheek of the forceps or groove to which it is 

 to be applied, as in fig. 1 . 



Of the Locusts, which did vast Damage in JValachia, Moldavia, and Transil- 

 vania, in 1747-8; and of some Swarms of them which, in July and August 

 1748, passed into Hungary and Poland. By a Gentleman residing in Tran- 

 silvania. N°491, p. 30. 



It is certain that the locusts came into Transilvania from Walachia and Mol- 

 davia, particularly through those narrow openings in the mountains, commonly 

 called passes; the most considerable of which, in the neighbourhood of Clau- 

 senburg, is called the pass of the Red Tower; and through others not far from 

 Karlstat, which are common roads from Transilvania into Moldavia and Walachia. 



The first swarms entered into Transilvania in August 1 747 ; these were suc- 

 ceeded by others, which were so surprisingly numerous, that when they reached 

 the Red Tower, they were full 4 hours in their passage over that place; and they 

 flew so close, that they made a sort of noise in the air, by the beating of their 

 wings against each other. The width of the swarm was some hundreds of 

 fathoms, and its height or density may be easily imagined to be more considerable, 

 inasmuch as they hid the sun, and darkened the sky, even to that degree, when 

 they flew low, that people could not know one another at the distance of 20 

 paces. But as they were to fly over a river that runs in the vallies of the Red 

 Tower, and could find neither resting-place nor food; being at length tired with 

 their flight, one part of them lighted on the unripe com on this side of the Red 

 Tower, such as millet, Turkish wheat, &c.; another part pitched on a low wood: 

 where having miserably wasted the produce of the land, they continued their 

 journey, as if a signal had been actually given for a march. The guards of the 

 Red Tower attempted to stop their irruption into Transilvania by firing at them;, 

 and indeed where the balls and shot swept through the swarm, they gave way 

 and divided; but, having filled up their ranks in a moment, they proceeded on 

 their journey. 



They were of difitrent forms, according to their different ages; for when, in 

 the month of September, some troops of them were thrown to the ground by 

 great rains, and other inclemency of the weather, and thoroughly soaked with 

 wet, they crept along in quest of holes in the earth, dung, and straw; where, 

 being sheltered from the rains, they laid a vast number of eggs, which stuck 

 together by a viscid juice, and were longer and smaller than what is commonly 

 called an ant's egg, very like grains of oats. The females, having laid their 

 eggs, die like the silk- worm ; and the Transilvanians found by experience, that 

 that swarm which entered into the fields by the Red Tower, did not seem to in- 



