VISIT TO UTAH AND NORTHWEST. 17 



the Missouri Eiver June 24-27, and through Dakota to Saint Paul and 

 home, reaching Salem July 5. 



As the result of this journey, the Commission was able to confirm the 

 belief it had previously announced, that there were no unfledged 

 locusts in a very extensive region of the Northwest, comprising large 

 portions of Montana, Dakota, and also British America, for about two 

 hundred and fifty miles north of the Missouri River, a region bounded 

 on the north by the Saskatchewan Eiver. As this region, together with 

 the Yellowstone Valley, is usually the great breeding-ground of the 

 Rocky Mountain locust, the Commission felt more confidently enabled, 

 from the state of things there and in Wyoming and Colorado, to predict 

 that there would be no serious invasion of the border States from Texas 

 to Minnesota in the summer and autumn, which would insure an immu- 

 nity from the attacks of young locusts, at least in 1878. It was also 

 ascertained that the tracts of country in Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, 

 where eggs were laid the year previous, and unfledged locusts were ob- 

 served in greater or less numbers, that the cold, heavy rains of April 

 and May, and the parasites, had, as in the Mississippi border States, so 

 materially reduced their number as to render them powerless to do ma- 

 terial harm, except in Cache and Malade Valleys, in Northern Utah, 

 while serious local damage was committed by them in Bitter Root Val- 

 ley, Montana. Much information was also obtained during this trip 

 regarding locust occurrences in the Territories and in British America. 

 (App. 9.) 



During the first week in July, Mr. Riley took the field in Colorado, 

 and the following letter, written just before his return, together with 

 data subsequently obtained (Chapter I, App. 7), will form a summary ot* 

 the state of things: 



To the editor of the Colorado Farmer : 



Dear Sir : Upon my arrival in Denver, three weeks ago, you requested me to fur- 

 nish you with a brief account of my intended observations in Colorado before my de- 

 parture. I can find time for but a few hurried jottings. 



OBJECT OF VISIT. 



As you are already aware, my visit has been in furtherance of the work of the United 

 States Entomological Commission, and my investigations have had reference to the 

 Rocky Mountain locust, or grasshopper. It gives me great pleasure to state that all 

 whom I have met with in Colorado, from the State officers down to the humblest 

 farmer, have generously assisted in my eiforts, and expressed a hearty sympathy with 

 the work of the Commission. After visiting Greeley, Golden, Boulder, and other points 

 north of Denver, and some of the ranches lying along the Denver and Rio Grande 

 Railroad, I found very little that was instructive beyond what intelligent correspond- 

 ents had already communicated. Hence, I spent as much time as possible in the mount- 

 ain passes and canons, espec ally those within easy reach of the narrow-gauge road 

 already mentioned, to the officers of which I am under special obligations for liberal 

 aid. Mr. William Holly, of Del Norte, has, on behalf of the Commission, visited most 

 of the interesting points which I have had no time to reach, in Park, Lake, Gunnison, 

 Fremont, Saguache, San Juan, Rio Grande, Conejos, and Costilla Counties. 



2a 



