Chronological History. 



47 



June had been followed by a luxuriance of vegetation 

 without parallel. The change wrought in three months 

 was magical ; and as I addressed them again in the midst 

 of plenty, the farmers felt thankful for the confidence and 

 encouragement they had received in such different circum- 

 stances, three months before. 



DESTINATION OF THE DEPARTING SWARMS OF 1875. 



That the insects which left the Mississippi Valley in 

 1875 reached into British America there is abundant proof. 

 The Winnipeg Standard of August 19, 1876, as quoted 

 by Professor Whitman, says : 



The locusts which hatched in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska 

 in 1875], in an area of 250 miles from east to west, and 300 miles 

 rom north to south, took flight in June, and invariably went north- 

 west, and fell in innumerable swarms upon the regions of British 

 America, adjoining Forts Pelly, Carlton and Ellice, covering an 

 area as large as that they vacated on the Missouri River. They 

 were reinforced by the retiring column from Manitoba, and it 

 seemed to be hoping against hope that the new swarms of 1876 

 would not again descend upon the settlements in the Red River 

 Valley. Intelligence was received here that the insects took flight 

 from the vicinity of Fort Pelly on the 10th of July, and then fol- 

 lowed a fortnight of intense suspense. 



Professor G. M. Dawson, of Montreal, wrote me : " You 

 may be interested in knowing that the northward flying 

 swarms in 1875 penetrated a considerable distance into the 

 region west of Manitoba, while most of the insects hatch- 

 ing in the latter province went southeastward when 

 winged, and that large numbers got at least as far east as 

 the Lake of the Woods." In an interesting paper in the 

 Canadian Naturalist^ on the " Appearance and Migrations 

 of the Locusts in Manitoba and the N. W. Territories in 

 the Summer of 1875," Professor Dawson further gives 

 many other valuable records, some of which, as bearing on 

 the question under consideration, I quote entire, as they 

 will hardly bear condensing. 



