134 
FROM THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS, 
CHAP. 
III. 
' 
persons being suffocated by a fall of locusts in 
✓ the steppes. It was now the season whep 
their numbers begin to diminish. On their 
first appearance, a thick dark cloud is seen 
very high in the air ; by its passage, ob- 
scuring the sun. Wc had always supposed 
that the stories told of the locust exaggerated 
its real appearance ; but we found the swarms 
to be so astonishing in all the steppes, during 
this part of our journey, that the whole face of 
nature seemed to be concealed, as by a living 
veil. They consisted of two species ; the 
Gry llus Tahtaricus, and the Gryllus Migratorius ' , 
or common migratory Locust. The first, al- 
most twice the size of the second, because it 
precedes the other, bears the name of Herald 
or Messenger. The migratory locust has red 
legs, and its inferior wings exhibit a lively red 
colour, giving a bright fiery appearance to the 
animal, when fluttering in the sun’s rays. The 
strength of their limbs is amazing; when pressed 
down by the hand upon a table, they have 
almost power to raise the fingers : but this 
force resides wholly in the legs; for if one of 
these be broken off, which happens by the 
slightest accident, the power of action ceases. 
There is yet a third kind of locust, the Gryllus 
(l) See the Vignette to Chap. V. 
