24 



where the new-comers could be traced directly back to Dakota, 

 there was very little alighting, and the swarms mostly passed over 

 into northwestern Iowa. By this raid of the sixth of August, the 

 area of visitation was extended eastward to St. Cloud, into Wright 

 and Le Sueur counties, and across Blue Earth and Martin counties. 

 After the sixth of August, clear weather and favorable winds, at 

 various dates, carried the line still further eastward, as on the 

 eleventh, the fourteenth, and especially on the eighteenth of 

 August, when large swarms flew over Elk River, Monticello, 

 Glencoe, Shakopee, Blakeley, Belle Plaine, Le Sueur, Mankato, 

 and Blue Earth City, and one flight was seen as far east as Hast- 

 ings. During the week ending August 26th, they were seen flying 

 over or alighting at various times in Rice, Waseca, Steele, Fari- 

 bault and Freeborn counties, and are said to have appeared over 

 Rochester. By the first of September they had added Waseca, 

 Freeborn, Carver, and portions of Hennepin, Sherburne, and Ben- 

 ton counties to the "grasshopper regions," and some slight addi- 

 tions to the eastward have been made since the latter date. 



The comparatively slow rate of progress to the eastward through 

 the season is surprising, considering the long distances which the 

 locust is supposed to travel, and the impression which one receives 

 from seeing a swarm passing in one direction through an 

 entire day. It is easy to imagine that such flights must have 

 come immediately from British America or Montana, and that 

 they will shortly reach Wisconsin and Illinois. But the locust, 

 as it appears in our state, moves (with perhaps rare exceptions,) 

 by day only and often for only a few hours in the day, and a halt 

 for the night is easily prolonged by head winds or cloudy weather 

 into a halt for several days ; nor do the swarms move continually 

 eastward, although the line of encroachment is continually mov- 

 ing in that direction. In one case at least, a body that had moved 

 easterly over a county on the 24th of August, returned directly 

 west one week later. (Freeborn County Standard, editorial, Aug. 

 31, 1876.) There is no knowledge that any swarm has (in Minne- 

 sota) reached the Mississippi river south of Hastings. 



But the general direction of movement since the twentieth of 

 July has been to the southward and eastward. The experience of 

 the summer has shown that the Big Woods offer no impassible 

 barrier. Hitherto, the incoming swarms have reached about as 

 far oast (but not in great numbers) as Lake Washington, in Le 

 Sueur county, longitude 16° 15' (nearly) west. They have reached 

 this point toward the end of August, when impaired in strength 

 and activity. But the invasion of the past summer has been 



