March, 1S35. 



SWARM OF LOCUSTS. 



403 



ing through the rigging of a ship. The sky seen through the 

 advanced guard appeared Uke a mezzotinto engraving, but the 

 main body was impervious to sight ; they were not, however, 

 so thick, but that they could escape from a stick moved 

 backward and forward. When they ahghted they were more 

 numerous than the leaves in a field, and changed the green 

 into a reddish colour : the swarm having once alighted, the 

 individuals flew from side to side in any direction. The 

 locusts are not an uncommon pest in this country : already 

 during the season, several smaller swarms had come up from 

 the sterile plains''^ of the south; and many trees had been 

 entirely stripped of their leaves. Of course this swarm cannot 

 even be compared to those of the eastern world, yet it was 

 sufficient to make the well-known descriptions of their ravages 

 more intelligible. I have omitted, perhaps, the most striking 

 part of the scene, — the vain attempts of the poor cottagers to 

 turn the stream aside. Many lighted fires and with the smoke, 

 with shouts and waving of branches, they endeavoured to 

 avert the attack. 



We crossed the Luxan, which is a river of considerable 

 size, though its course towards the sea-coast is very im- 

 perfectly known. It is even doubtful whether, in passing- 

 over the plains, it is evaporated, or whether it forms a tribu- 

 tary of the Sauce or Colorado. We slept in the village^ 

 which is a small place surrounded by gardens, and forms the 

 most southern part, that is cultivated, of the province of 

 Mendoza ; it is five leagues south of the capital. At night I 

 experienced an attack (for it deserves no less a name) of the 

 Benchuca (a species of Reduvius) the great black bug of the 

 Pampas. It is most disgusting to feel soft wingless insects, 

 about an inch long, crawling over one^s body* Before suck- 

 ing they are quite thin, but afterwards become round and 

 bloated with blood, and in this state they are easily crushed. 



* Swarms of locusts sometimes overrun the more central plains of this 

 continent. In these cases, and likewise as it appears in all parts of the 

 world, the locusts are bred in desert plains, and thence migrate towards 

 a more fertile country. 



