376 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



with chafF from the stable floor, did not save them, while she was complimented the 

 next year for so successfully sowing the garden down to grass. The leaves were 

 stripped from the apple-trees. They entered the house in swarms, reminding one of 

 the locusts of Egypt, and, as we walked, they would rise in countless numbers and fly 

 away in clouds. 



As the nights grew cooler they collected on the spruce and hemlock stumps and log 

 fences, completely covering them, eating the moss and decomposed surface of the 

 wood, and leaving the surface clean and new. They would perch on the west side of 

 a stump, where they could feel the warmth of the sun, and work around to the east 

 side in the morning as the sun reappeared. The foot-paths in the fields were literally 

 covered with their excrements. 



During the latter part of August and the first of September, when the air was still 

 dry, and for several days in succession a high wind prevailed from the north-west, the 

 locusts frequently rose in the air to an immense height. By looking up at the sky 

 in the middle of a clear day, as nearly as possible in the direction of the sun, one may 

 descry a locust at a great height. These insects could thus be seen in swaims, appear- 

 ing like so many thistle-blows, as they expanded their wings and were borne along 

 toward the sea before the wind ; myriads of them were drowned in Casco bay, and I 

 remember hearing that they frequently dropped on the decks of coasting vessels. 

 Cart-loads of dead bodies remained in the fields, forming in spots a tolerable coating 

 of manure. 



27. Melanoplus punctulatus ( Caloptenus punctulatus Uhl.). This insect 

 having been taken in Maine and in central Vermont, must occur in parts 

 of New Hampshire. 



28. Melanoplus bivittatus (Gryllus bivitiatus Say). One may find this 

 insect almost anywhere in New Hampshire, perched on the huge leaves 

 of Inula Helenium growing by road- sides. It occurs in the White 

 Mountain valleys, and has a very wide distribution extending along the 

 Atlantic coast from Maine to Carolina or Georgia, and westward to the 

 Rocky Mountains, where, Thomas says, it "is found east of the range from 

 New Mexico to Montana [and farther, for I have taken it on Lake Win- 

 nipeg, and Kirby took it in latitude 65°, or about Fort Simpson in Arctic 

 America], and west of it from Salt lake north to the dead waters of Snake 

 river ; and, although it is not mentioned among the collections made in 

 Washington territory, yet I am of the opinion it will be found there." 



29. CEdipoda Carolina Burm. This grasshopper is found through all 

 the parts of the state included in the Alleghanian fauna, but no farther; 

 it is found, for instance, at Shelburne, on the Androscoggin, but not in 

 the Glen, or the upper valley of the Peabody. It is a wide-spread species, 



