LAKE OF FIRE. 
167 
But this planet holds few difficulties, that man, 
with time in which to exercise his ingenuity, 
cannot master. The young grasshopper, born in 
Colorado now, awakes to a struggle for existence 
his progenitors of five years ago never dreamed 
of! Deadly kerosene floats on the ditch he must 
swim for his breakfast ; his infant form is remorse- 
lessly stuck to tarred blankets in the wheat-field, 
whereon he would lunch ; and winged machines 
fan him into a lake of fire as he essays to dine. 
For his annoyance and extermination neither 
money, labor, nor research is spared ; farmers 
hatch numberless broods of fowl to devour him; 
Congress sends commissioners to investigate 
him ; States meet and sit in council upon him ; 
China and the ends of the earth are importuned 
for receipts for vile smells to harass him ; the wis- 
dom and experience of all ages and climes are 
invoked to haunt and torment him. I submit, 
the future of the locust in America looks dark ! 
t FTER a number of days spent, either above 
timber-line or in the immediate vicinity 
below it, the party turned their faces homeward. 
Their excursion had been a successful one in 
many respects, especially in securing semi-Arctic 
birds in summer plumage. Their good fortune 
