686 REPORT UNITED-STATES- GEOLOGICAL. SURVEY. 



head, and leave tbem to drop to the ground. * * * * Their next 

 attack was upon the Indian corn and potatoes. They stripped the leaves 

 and ate out the silk from the corn, so that it was rare to harvest a full 

 ear. Among forty or fifty bushels of corn spread out in the dry-room, 

 not an ear could be found not mottled with detached kernels. While 

 these insects were more than usually abundant in the town generally, 

 it was in the field I have described that they appeared in the greatest 

 intensity. After they had stripped everything from the field they began 

 to emigrate in countless numbers. * * * * They crossed the high- 

 way and attacked the vegetable-garden. I remember the curious ap- 

 pearance of a large, flourishing bed of red onions, whose tops they first 

 literally ate up, and, not contented with that, devoured the interior of 

 the bulbs, leaving the dry external covering in place. * * * * The 

 leaves were stripped from the apple-trees. They entered the house in 

 swarms, reminding one of the locusts of Egyi^t, and as we walked they 

 would rise in countless numbers and fly away in clouds. As the nights 

 grew cooler, they collected on the spruce and hemlock stumps and log 

 fences, completely covering them, eating the moss and decomposed sur- 

 face of the wood, and leaving the surface clean and new. They would 

 perch on the west side of a stump where they could feel the warmth of 

 the sun, and work around to the east side in the morning as the sun re- 

 appeared. The foot-paths in the fields were literally covered with their 

 excrements. 



" During the latter part of August and the first of September, when the 

 air was still dry, and for several days in succession, a high wind pre- 

 vailed from the northwest, the locusts frequently rose in the air to an 

 immense height. By looking up at the sky in the middle of a clear day, 

 as nearly as possible in the direction of the sun, one may descry a 

 locust at a great height. These insects could thus be seen in swarms, 

 appearing like so many thistle-blows as they expanded their wings and 

 were borne along toward the sea before the wind ; myriads of them were 

 drowned in Casco Bay ; and I remember hearing that they frequently 

 dropped on the decks of coasting-vessels. Cart-loads of dead bodies 

 remained in the fields, forming in spots a tolerable coating of manure. 



" It was an object of curiosity to me, then a boy, to catch some of the 

 largest locusts, and turn up their wings to find the little red parasite 

 which covered their bodies. This might have done something toward 

 hastening their destruction, although it did not prevent the ravages on 

 the crops. 



" During the years necessary to clear up the forests on the sandy lands 

 in the vicinity, it was no uncommon thing to have the crops seriously 

 injured by these locusts, but never, to my knowledge, to the extent de- 

 scribed above. 



"In response to my special inquiries concerning the flight of these 

 insects, my correspondent replied as follows : ' I do not remember ever 

 to have witnessed the flight of these grasshoppers to any extent, except 

 during the year mentioned and the preceding one. Nor do I ever 

 recollect a time when the wind blew so steadily for days in succession 

 from the northwest, generally rising soon after midday and going down 

 with the sun. I have no meteorological record, but speak from memory.' 



" The town of Pownal was principally settled after the opening of the 

 present century. As the lauds were cleared, the Canada thistle and 

 other species sprang up in great quantities ; when they ripened, the 

 wind spoken of as occurring at that time carried off immense numbers 

 of the thistle-blows to the ocean. I was wont to spend hours in my 

 boyhood lying on the ground and directing my eyes as near as I could 



