GRYLLUS. 417 



The vifitatibn of a few minutes deftrojs the hopes of a 

 year 5 and a famine but too frequently enfues. 



In their nacive tropical cli. -nates, the locufts are faid 

 not to be fo dreadful as in tiie more foutherii parts of 

 Kurope, and the oppofive coafts of the Mediterranean : 

 There, though the plain and the foreft be ilripped of their 

 verdure, the power of vegetaiioa is fo great, that an in- 

 terval of three or four days repairs the calamity. But 

 our verdure is the livery of a feafon, and wc mud wait 

 till the enfuing fpring repair the damage ; befides, iti 

 their long flight to this part of the world, they are fa- 

 iTsifhed by the tedioufnefs of their journey, and are there- 

 fore more voracious wherever they happen to fettle *. 



Bui it is not by what they devour, that the locuils do 

 fo much damage, as by what they deltroy ; their very 

 bite is thoiight to contaminate the plant, and prevents its 

 vegetation : to ufe the espreirion of the hufbandmen, 

 they burn whatever they touch, and leave the marks of 

 their devaftations for two or three years. The bite of 

 many animals operates like a poifon to, vegetables ; and 

 if th's be the cafe, it does not appear that the depreda- 

 tions of thefe infeiSs can, in any country, be foon re- 

 paired. 



Such are the fatal effefts of the voracity of the locufts 

 Wliile alive ; and when dead they fometimes prove (till 

 more ::oxious, by iiifefting the air with a flench that is 

 infupportable. Ofofius tells us, that iii the year of the 

 world 3800, there was an incredible number of thefe in'- 

 fefls which infefted Africa ; and after having eaten up 

 every thing that was gieen, they flew olT, and were 



Vol. 111. 3 G drowned 



• Goldfmlth's Nat. Hill. Vol. 7'Jj p. 345. 



