GRASSHOPPERS, OR LOCUSTS. 237 



when they settle round the traveller in countless multitudes, 

 clinging to the leaves of the grass, as if resting after their 

 journey. 



They are fearful depredators. Not only do they destroy 

 the husbandman's crops, but so voracious are they, that 

 they will attack every article left even for a few minutes 

 on the ground — -saddle-girths, leather bags, and clothing of 

 all descriptions, are devoured without distinction. Mr. Hind 

 says that ten minutes sufficed for them to destroy three pairs 

 of woollen trousers which had been carelessly thrown on the 

 grass. The only way to protect property from these depreda- 

 tors is to pile it on a waggon or cart out of reach. 



Two distinct broods of grasshoppers appear — one with wings 

 not yet formed, which has been hatched on the spot ; the other, 

 full-grown invaders from the southern latitudes. They some- 

 times make their appearance at Red River. However, Mr. 

 Ross, for long a resident in that region, states that from 1819, 

 when the colonists' scanty crops were destroyed by grass- 

 hoppers, to 1856, they had not returned in sufficient numbers 

 to commit any material damage. Their ravages, indeed, are 

 not to be compared to those committed by the red locust in 

 Egypt; and yet Egypt has ever been one of the chief granaries 

 of the world. 



