AGRICULTURE. 95 



army took their flight by Heidersdorff to Zothen. Beside the de- 

 struction they make everywhere, they leave a great stench behind 



them.** 



Much more of interest might be added, but this much may suf- 

 fice to give some idea of this remarkable event, which attracted 

 the attention of all Europe at the time. In these two years they 

 spread over a large part of .southeastern Europe, coming in great 

 numbers as far west, at least, as Bohemia and the upper valley of 

 the Oder in Prussia. Scattering bands of the same grand army 

 were said to have passed over the Baltic into Norway and Sweden, 

 in L749, and there are several curious mentions of others that went 

 so far as the British Islands. To add more of reality to this state- 

 ment, I quote from The Gentleman "s Magazine, of July 31st, 174:8: 

 "A swarm of locusts lately fell near Bristol, much resembling 

 those that fell some time ago in Transylvania (Hungary), and now 

 again ravage that country. A sort of locust, also, has done great 

 damage in Shropshire and Staffordshire, by eating the blossoms of 

 apple and crab trees, and especially the leaves of oak trees, which 

 look as bare as Christmas. All three of these places named are on 

 the western coast of England. From the description, they (the 

 locusts) appear to belong to the species (Edipoda Migratoria, one 

 of the most dreaded kinds: the same that devastated Palestine in 

 1865. ** 



Aittj. 5. — The same authority says: "Numbers of locusts (dis- 

 covered the hot, sultry da}' before in the clouds by the help of 

 glasses) were found in St. James Park (London) and adjacent 

 places.'* 



Aug. 23, 1748. — A gentleman from Rochester, the extreme south- 

 western shire of England, writes: ''The frequent accounts from 

 abroad (Poland, Hungary, &C.,) concerning the locust, together 

 with their appearance in some parts of England, particularly near 

 Rochester, (which, upon inquiry, 1 find to be the fact,) occasions 

 my troubling you with the following: 



"The first discovery of them was made by the workmen in 

 mowing a field of oats, near Chatham. Some of them were brought 

 to me by the laborers. It is surprising with what quickness the] 

 devour cabbage-leaf, lettuce or other herbage. They have six legs, 

 the two hindermost being largest, enables them to spring like our 

 common grasshopper, though with more strength and to a greater 

 distance." There are accounts of their appearance in other places 

 in England in this season of 1748, and the people seemed to have 

 taken it for granted that they were the Black Sea locusts. They 



