385 



CHAP. XLII. 



THE LOCUSTS AND THE FLOODS. 



The Locusts. — General Distribution of the Insect. — Distinctions between 

 Crickets, Grasshoppers and Locusts. — The Locust of the North- West. — 

 Acrydium Femur-ruhrum. — Description of the Insect. — Male and Female. 

 — Accounts of the Appearance of Locusts in the United States and 

 Rupert's Land. — Distribution in 1857 and 1858. — Limits of its Ravages. — 

 Females engaged in laying Eggs. — Vitality of the Eggs. — Power of Flight 

 of this Locust. — Elevation of its Flight above the Sea. — Food of the 

 Insect. — Effect of the periodical Visitations in the Far West and in 

 Rupert's Land.— The Floods.— Flood Years.— Effects of, in 1802.— The 

 Bishop of Rupert's Land Description. — Specidations respecting the Cause 

 of the Floods. — Sudden Melting of an unusual Fall of Snow at the Open- 

 ing of Spring. 



THE LOCUSTS. 



The English name grasshopper is almost universally 

 applied to the insect which forms the subject of the pre- 

 sent notice. Its general distribution in the United States, 

 and the dreadful ravages which have been produced at 

 different times by innumerable hosts of these insects in the 

 north-western and north-eastern states of the Union, have 

 led to many accounts of its ravages in the newspapers of 

 the day, in all of which it is described under that name. 

 As the insect is not a grasshopper, but a locust, the fol- 

 lowing description of the difference between grasshoppers, 

 crickets, and locusts, abbreviated from the excellent and 

 most attractive treatise by Dr. Harris on " Insects injurious 

 VOL. II. c c 



