CHRONOLOGY: DAKOTA, 1877. 91 



Eiver. Tn the Little Missouri Yalle3", od the border of Montana, millions 

 of unfledged locusts were observed May 29. (Whitman's Eep., p. 17.) 

 Along the Northern Pacific Eailroad, from Bismarck to Fargo, large 

 swarms were noticed. At Fort Totten some hatched in 1876 ; swarms 

 visited the region in July, but laid no eggs, and did little damage. Most 

 of the swarms observed in the eastern counties seemed to have come 

 from the northwest, no locusts having this season bred on the James 

 Eiver. The last of July Southeastern Dakota was overrun by locusts, 

 and, on an average, half a crop was saved. (Codington. ) 



Capt. W. E. Massie, of the Missouri Eiver steamer Eed Cloud, informed 

 us, from personal observations, that locusts "hatched out all the way 

 between Bismarck and the Black Hills" in June, 1876. Locusts were 

 observed at Strawberry Island, 140 miles east of Fort Buford, flying at 

 the end of June or early in July, 1876. (S. S. Hughes.) 



Extract from letter of Dr. Charles E. McChesney, Fort Sisseton, to 

 Mr. Whitman : " I believe locusts hatched to a very large extent in the 

 valley of the James Eiver in 1876, as I know they did on the Coteau and 

 just off the lowlands for ten miles to the west of this post, which was as 

 far as 1 visited in that direction last year." "Locusts came here today 

 in immensenumbersfrom the northwest." (Yankton: Professor Aughey.) 



1877. — Scattered bands of locusts were observed June 21 at Bismarck, 

 and were observed until August 11. (U. S. Weath. Signal Office), which 

 came from the southeast, and were observed as far east as Jamestown, 

 June 18-20. Little or no damage was done this year so far as heard 

 from. 



" Locusts hatched in this vicinity in considerable numbers, but did 

 but little destruction." (Dr. McChesney, Sisseton agency.) Eev. S. E. 

 Eiggs writes, September 28, 1877, from Sisseton agency, as follows : 

 " While I was on the Missouri Eiver, near Fort Sully, there was an 

 alighting of hoppers about the 10th of this month. They came on the 

 west wind. For several days they were flying, but not in great num- 

 bers. They came down and seemed to increase from day to day for 

 several days, until they were very abundant, but, as it was, did but little 

 hurt. On the way over, as we came eastward, we found them on the 

 Missouri Coteau, somewhat annoying in traveling, but in no large num- 

 bers anywhere." 



At Fort Totten a few locusts were seen in July three or four times. 

 "No eggs have been left in this immediate vicinity." (Capt. A. A. 

 Harbach.) None were seen within seventy-five miles of Lower Brule 

 agency. 



At Fort Sully, Capt. Leslie Smith, United States Army, reports, un- 

 der date of October 6, that " no locusts were discovered as having hatched 

 in this vicinity. Swarms were first seen flying north on the 22d of June, 

 and they continued to fly in a northerly direction in immense clouds 

 until about the 10th of July, when they stopped flying past here. None 

 of the swarms alighted. Grasshoppers have been quite numerous along 



