38 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
Bazza, Mingrelia, are seldom free from them. These vermin being drove by an east 
or southeast wind, come into Ukraine, where they do much mischief, eating up all 
sorts of grain and grass; so that wheresoever they come, in less than two hours they 
crop all they fiud, which causes great scarcity in provisions ; and if the locusts re- 
main there in autumn, and the mouth of October, which is the time when they die, 
after laying at least three hundred eggs apiece, which hatch next spring, then the 
country is three hundred times worse pestered. But if it rains when they begin to 
hatch they all die, and the country escapes that year unless they come from other 
parte. It is not easy to express their numbers for all the air is full and darkened ; 
and I cannot better represent their flight to you than by comparing it to the flakes of 
snow in cloudy weather drove about by the wind. And when they alight upon the 
ground to feed, the plains arc all covered, and they make a murmuring noise as they 
eat, where in less than two hours they devour all close to the ground. Then rising 
they suffer themselves to be carried away by the wind, and when they fly, though 
the son shines never so bright, it is no lighter than when most cloudy. 
In June, 1G4G, having staid two months in a new town, called Novogorod, where I 
was building a citadel, I was astonished to see so vast a multitude, for it was pro- 
digious to behold them, because they were hatched there that spring, and being, as 
yet, scarce able to fly, the ground was all covered and the air so full of them that I 
could not eat in my chamber without a candle, all the houses being full of them even 
to the stables, barns, chambers, garrets, and cellars. I caused cannon powder and sul- 
phur to be burnt to expel them, but all to no purpose ; for when the door was opened 
an infinite number came iu and the others went out fluttering about. And it was a. 
troublesome thing when a man went abroad to be hit on the face by those creatures ; 
sometimes on the nose, sometimes on the eyes, and sometimes on the cheek, so that 
there was no opening one's mouth but some would get in. Yet all this was nothing, 
for when we were to eat these creatures gave us no respite, and when we went to cut , 
a bit of meat we cut a locust with it, and wheu a man opened his mouth to put in a 
morsel he was sure to chew one of them. * * * I have seen them at night, when 
they sit to rest them, that the roads were four inches thick of them one upon another, 
so that the horses would not* trample over them but as they were put on with much : 
lashing, pricking up their ears, snorting, and treading very fearfully. The wheels of J 
our carts and the feet of our horses bruising those creatures, there came from them ] 
such a stink as not only offended the nose but the brain. I was not able to endure 
that stench, but was forced to wash my nose in vinegar and hold a handkerchief dipped 
in it continually to my nostrils. 40 
In 1G50 Lithuania and Poland were again visited, 41 and in 1662 the j 
province of Puglia Daunia. 42 In 1684 an immense number appeared in 
Hungary and Austria. 43 In the year following an immense swarm fell 1 
near Avignon. 44 
In 3689 another general invasion of Northern Europe began, striking 
first Lithuania and Poland 45 reaching Yolhynia in Russia in 1690. 46, 1 
According to Eembold, 47 they were also abundant in Ukraine. In 1693 
they swept in immense swarms through Hungary, Bohemia and Austria |i 
40 Al8o "Gentleman's Magazine,'' 1748. August, p. 363. 
41 K6ppen, 114. 
42 Lucretiis, I. c. 
« Rembold, 325. 
44 H. Justell, Phil. Trans., 1C86, vol. 16, p. 147. 
46 Jean Gallois, "Observations sur les sauterelles qui ont ravage la Pologne et la Lithuanie in 1C89 ' — ' I 
Mem. Acad. Sci. Paris, v. 2, 88. 
^Stoikoovitsch, "Tiber die Heuschrecken und die Mittel ihrer Vertilgung," 1823, s. 8 — Koppen ; S- 
TJssans, 1 ' Particularity remaiquables des Sauterelles qui sont venues eu Russie," 1690. 
*»P. 18— Keferstein. 
