MIGRATION AND DISPERSAL OF INSECTS : ORTHOPTEnA. 65 



over the adjacent country, and wo ima,^ine that the same wind drove 

 the locusts into the sea. They spread desolation wherever they came ; 

 after devouring the herbage, with fruits and leaves of trees, they 

 attacked even the buds and the very bark ; they did not so much as 

 spare the reeds with which the huts were thatched, notwithstanding 

 that these were so dry ; in short, they did all the mischief that can be 

 dreaded from so voracious an insect." An equally old record is to be 

 found in Hasselquist's Voi/aije to the Levant. This partakes rather of a 

 humorous nature. It runs as follows : " The inhabitants of Asia, as 

 well as Europe, sometimes take the field against locusts with all the 

 dreadful apparatus of war. The Cashaw of Tripoli in Syria, some years 

 ago, raised 4,000 soldiers against these insects and ordered those to be 

 hanged who refused to go." We have not elsewhere read of the 

 inhabitants of Europe doing this, nor does the writer make it quite 

 clear whether it was the soldiers or insects which were to be hanged 

 if they refused to go. The humorous side of another report is evident. 

 This related to an invasion of locusts into the districts of Odessa, 

 Ananieff, and Eobvior, and an account of the appearance of this swarm 

 was evidently recorded rather as a disagreeable cause of breaking up a 

 convivial gathering than for any other reason. It relates that " a gentle- 

 man invited a large party to a fete at his country house, and in the 

 evening the place was splendidly lit up with lamps, Bengal lights, etc. ; 

 sumptuous sideboards were laid out, and a select company had assem- 

 bled. All looked forward to a merry evening. The windows of the 

 apartments had been opened, and a refreshing breeze was entering the 

 room, when, suddenly, a loud noise was heard, and, a few moments 

 afterwards, myriads of locusts filled the rooms, the gardens, the sleep- 

 ing chambers, and every part of the villa. Fireworks and rockets were 

 discharged in the hope of driving away these troublesome guests, but 

 in vain. The company were compelled to leave." The breath of a 

 disappointed gourmand thus speaks of one of these dreadful visitations. 

 What devastation, scourge, and havoc it produced we do not learn. 



In 1799 Jackson states that the whole country between Mogador 

 and Tangier was crowded with locusts, and they were often carried 

 westward into the ocean. From the Russian steppes vast swarms are 

 occasionally given forth. In the time of Charles XII. (of Sweden), his 

 army, which was in Bessarabia (when returning from Poltava), was 

 stopped by a flight of locusts that came from the region of the Black 

 Sea. In 1828 and 1829 enormous swarms visited the coast of the 

 Black Sea. In 1859, in the South Russian province of Cherson and in 

 Bessarabia, a tract GO versts long and about 20 wide, was covered by 

 them. The locust years in Russia are reported as 1800, 1801, 1803, 

 1812-1816, 1820-1822, 1824-1825, 1828-1831, 1834-1836, 1844, 1847, 

 1850-1851, 1859, 1861. In Germany, the years in which locusts have 

 appeared in this century are 1803, 1825-1830, 1856, 1859. The agree- 

 ment of these dates with certain of the Russian SAvarms is very sugges- 

 tive as to their origin. In China it is stated that there are 173 records 

 of devastating swarms of locusts, spread over a period of 1,924 years, 

 but nothing very definite is known of them. In 1876, Colonel 

 Prejvalsky states that swarms of locusts were seen at an elevation of 

 9,000ft. in the Altyn-Tag range in Central Asia. In recent years 

 records from Australia have also been received. Those that have taken 

 place in America are mentioned elsewhere. Koppeii has worked out at 



