THOMAS ON OETHOPTERA OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 493 



plained ; for gazing upwards we behold the heavens filled with broad, 

 'living, silvery snowflakes, and then a sliower thick as rain, but drop- 

 ping like pebbles, striking our hats, hands, and upturned faces and the 

 ground around with a sudden and peculiar thud. Grasshoppers, grass- 

 hoppers by the million ! is the exclamation which explains the mystery. 



Ouward they come a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads numberless, 

 The rushing of whose wings is as the sound 

 Of a broad river headlong in its course 

 Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 

 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 

 Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks. 



We watch the myriads of restless workers for a few hours, and ere 

 the sun has set see the corn stripped of its green leaves, and the beau- 

 tiful green covering of the scene changed to an almost barren waste. 



It is true this is given as an imaginary sketch, but those who have 

 beheld the arrival of these hordes will scarcely consider it greatly exng- 

 gerated or far from correct. 



Numerous letters and statements from eye-witnesses of the late inva- 

 sion might be given which would show that the picture I have given is 

 not overdrawn. In one of the letters in Professor Riley's Eeport for 

 1875 I find the following statement, which shows the rapidity with which 

 these devourers work: — "They appeared on Sunday, Julj^ 26, at about 

 6 o'clock p. m. They were so thick in the air that they appeared like 

 a heavy snow-storm ; those high in the air forming apparently light, 

 fleecy clouds, while those dropping to the earth resembled flakes of fall- 

 ing snow. Next morning, Monday, the 27th, at daylight, the country 

 was literally covered with grasshoppers. Soon after sunrise they col- 

 lected on the growing crops, young trees, etc., and commenced eating, 

 and before night had eaten the leaves from almost every green thing." 

 A resident of Nebraska, whose place I had visited before the invasion, 

 describing their appearance, stated that they arrived about 10 a. m., 

 darkening the sky with their numbers; that by 3 p. m. the corn — the 

 chief crop of that section — was completely stripped of its blades. 



Now what can the farmer do with the one or two assistants of his 

 family, aided by all the appliances they could operate, in preserving a 

 field of eighty or a hundred acres of corn from such an attack as this ; 

 especially when we remember that as soon as it is cleared of one set of 

 these devourers, another stands ready to pour in upon it from the sur- 

 rounding prairies ? Beside, there can be no combination of forces, for 

 at such times all are similarly situated, and delay is fatal. So far, man 

 appears to be powerless at such times, as with the force the pioneer 

 farmers of these border States usually have at command but little pro- 

 gress could be made towards harvesting their crops after the swarms have 

 appeared, and even if this were possible, which is seldom the case, it Is 

 usually valueless except as fodder; but even this would be worth the 

 trouble, as it would assist in preserving the stock. 



