188 INDIEECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS^. 



exemption from most of those scourges to which other nations 

 are exposed, was once alarmed by the appearance of locusts. 

 In 1748 they were observed here in considerable numbers, 

 but providentially they soon perished without propagating. 

 These were evidently stragglers from the vast swarms which 

 in the preceding year did such infinite damage in Wallachia, 

 Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland. One of these 

 swarms, which entered Transylvania in August, was several 

 hundred fathoms in width (at Vienna the breadth of one of 

 them was three miles), and extended to so great a length as 

 to be four hours in passing over the Red Tower; and such 

 was its density that it totally intercepted the solar light, so 

 that when they flew low one person could not see another at 

 the distance of twenty paces. ^ A similar account has been 

 given me by a friend of mine ^ long resident in India. He 

 relates that when at Poonah he was witness to an immense 

 army of locusts which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was 

 supposed to come from Arabia (this, if correct, is a strong 

 proof of their power to pass the sea under favourable circum- 

 stances). The column they composed, my friend was in- 

 formed, extended five hundred miles ; and so compact was it, 

 when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, it completely hid the 

 sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object, and some 

 lofty tombs distant from his residence not more than two 

 hundred yards were rendered quite invisible. This was not 

 the Locusta migratoria, but a red species ; which circumstance 

 much increased the horror of the scene ; for, clustering upon 

 the trees after they had stripped them of their foliage, they 

 imparted to them a sanguine hue. The peach was the last 

 tree that they touched. 



Dr. Clarke, to give some idea of the infinite numbers of 

 these animals, compares them to a flight of snow when the 

 flakes are carried obliquely by the wind. They covered his 

 carriage and horses, and the Tartars assert that people are 

 sometimes suflbcated by them. The whole face of nature 

 might have been described as covered by a living veil. They 



1 Philos. Trans, xlvi. 30. 



2 Major Moor, author of The Narrative of Captain Little's Detachment, The 

 Hindu Pantheon, &c. 



