CHRONOLOGY: DAKOTA, 1870-1874. 89 



The presence of destructive locusts is referred to in descriptions of the 

 other forts, but the years in which they occurred are not stated. 



1870. — A great swarm of locusts made a descent on the prairies in a 

 portion of Brookings County. (G. S. Codington.) 



1871. — A swarm arrived at Berthold July 16, 1871. 



1872. — Liberty and Hutchinson Counties, late Union County, were 

 visited by locusts late in August this year. Locusts occurred in Pem- 

 bina County during 1871 and 1872, according to Mr. Emmerling. 



1873. — In June a small number of locusts came from the westward and 

 alighted near Sisseton Agency and deposited eggs, " from which came, in 

 the spring of 1874, an innumerable multitude." (Rev. S. 11. Eiggs.) 



In Union County a cloud of locusts was observed by Mr. Codington, 

 who adds that '' Locusts this year did great damage over a considerable 

 portion of Southeastern Dakota, as far northward as in Minnehaha 

 County. In October I rode across the country from Canton, in Lincoln 

 County, to Yermilliou, in Clay County, and observed a large number of 

 fields that had not been harvested because the locusts had destroyed 

 the grain." Mr. J. J. Donnelly tells us that in the latter part of July or 

 early in August, 1873, he saw a swarm of locusts flying in the direction 

 of Fort Garry from the headwaters of James Eiver. A lake was filled 

 with their bodies, making the water so putrid that he had to drive the 

 cattle thirty-five miles to get good water for them. Locusts appeared, 

 we were told, at Strawberry Island, 140 miles east of Fort Buford, in 

 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, but there were none in 1877. Col. W. Thompson 

 informs us that locusts appeared at Fort Eice (now Fort A. Lincoln) in 

 1873, 1874, 1875, and 1876, but none hatched in 1877. The more settled 

 portions of the Territory were also visited this year. Dr. Elliott Coues, 

 U. S. A., naturalist to the ]N'orthern Boundary Commission, writes me 

 that in 1873 he observed swarms of locusts on Mouse Eiver, in Northern 

 Dakota. 



1874. — This was also a locust year in Dakota, although there are no 

 records at hand giving particulars as to invasions. In Capt. W. Lud- 

 low's report of a reconnaissance of the Black Hills of Dakota, in the 

 summer of 1874, it is stated that grasshoppers were observed at Fort 

 Lincoln in June ; July 10, immense numbers were seen on the Xorth. 

 Fork of Grand Eiver ; July 30, grasshoppers appeared at a point eight 

 or nine miles from Harney's Peak, and were seen August 7 in the creek 

 valleys of the hills. 



At the Sisseton agency locusts " destroyed all the gardens and wheat- 

 fields in a circle of five miles about the agency." (Eev. S. E. Eiggs.) 



Mr. Codington writes that 1874 " was the year of most marked devas- 

 tation." In Brookings County they appeared July 17, "coming down 

 like a thick snow-storm," and left the 19th; but swarms continued to 

 fly overhead, and desc';5nding again the last day of July in greater num- 

 bers than before, eating everything green ; the devastation extended 

 through nearly all the southeastern counties of Dakota. The poverty 



