the ravages committed in the R <d River Settlement in 1818 and 

 1819 may be said to concern this State. But the statement of 

 Capt. Jonathan Carver in 1766, in regard to the large swarms 

 which "infest these parts and the interior colonies" shows the 

 occasional presence of the'migratory locust, although it is hard to 

 say exactly what localities are referred to. But late in July 1856, 

 invading swarms came from the Northwest into the Upper Missis- 

 sippi Valley, and gradually spread along the river during the sea- 

 son, much the same as they have done in the past summer, and 

 reaching nearly the same limits. The injury was, of course, felt 

 most severely along the Mississippi and the cultivated region adja- 

 cent, but the locusts are said to have appeared along the Minne- 

 sota River, in the Yellow Medicine country, and at various points 

 in the north western counties of the State. It is probable that 

 the north western part of the State was swept over by migrating 

 swarms during the summer, much the same as in the present year. 

 But few traces of these were seen in the following year, except 

 along the Upper Mississippi, where the damage was even greater 

 than the year before. A general flight took place in July, and the 

 direction of the departure was to the south and south-west gen- 

 erally, and was, perhaps, the occasion of the injury done in Iowa 

 that year. 



Again, in 1861, swarms appeared early in July, along the Upper 

 Minnesota river, and spread eastward gradually during the season, 

 and reached about as far east as in 1874, i. e., to the third tier of 

 towns in Le Sueur county. Scattering swarms also visited Mani- 

 toba in the same year, and probably some portions of these reached 

 as far as Minnesota, for we hear of slight appearances of them in 

 the Red River and the Sauk Valleys in 1864 and 1865. Hut the 

 greater portion of the injury was done in the Minnesota Valley, 

 and was followed by a general departure to the southwest in 1865. 

 The injury in Colorado also was very severe in the same years, 

 but there seems to have been no large movement to the eastward, 

 such as occurred later, in 1866 and 1867. , 



It seems very likely that the swarms which entered Minnesota 

 in 1864 were hatched at no great distance, and were the offspring 

 of swarms that had alighted in eastern Dakota in the preceding 

 year. This may perhaps be inferred from the following letter of 

 the Rev. S. R. Riggs, missionary at the Sisseton Indian Agency, 

 dated Sept. 9, 1875: 



"Iu 1863, it will be remembered, that on Gen. Sibley's expedition to the 

 Missouri we met with the ravages of the grasshoppers in various parts of 

 Dakota, particularly, as I remember, near Skunk Lake (iu Minuehaha couu- 



