2,88 THE MIGRATORY LOCUST. 



north-west wind, and were afterwards cast upon the 

 beach, where, it is said, they formed a bank of three 

 or four feet high that extended a distance of nearly 

 fifty English miles 3 and it is asserted that, when 

 this mass became putrid, and the wind was at- 

 south-east, the stench was sensibly felt in several 

 parts of Sneuwberg, distant at least a hundred and 

 fifty miles*. 



The female Locust, when she lays her cggs 9 

 which are generally about forty in number, retires 

 to some solitary place under ground ; where, by her 

 sagacity, she secures them from the intemperance of 

 the air, as well as from the more immediate danger 

 of the plough or spade, one fatal blow of which 

 would destroy all the hopes of a rising generation. 



One would imagine that so horrid an insect as the 

 Locust would never have been thought of as food 

 for man ; and yet it is an undoubted fact that, iri 

 several parts of Africa, the people eat them. They 

 are dressed in different ways : some pound and boil 

 them with milk ; others only broil them on the 

 coals, and think them excellent food. " There is 

 no disputing about tastes (says Mr. Adanson) : for 

 my part I would willingly resign whole clouds of 

 Locusts to the negroes of Gambia for the meanest 

 of their fishes j"." 



* Barrow's Travels, p. 257. 



* Adanson's Voyage to Senegal* 



