GRYLLUS. 417 
I he vifitation of a few minutes deflrOys the hopes of a 
year ; and a famine but too frequently enfues. 
In their native tropical climates, the locults are faid 
not to be fo dreadful as in the more fouthern parts of 
Europe, and the oppofite coalls of the Mediterranean : 
There, though the plain and the foreft be flripped of their 
verdure, the power of vegetation is fo great, that an in- 
terval of three or four days repairs the calamity. But 
our verdure is the livery of a feafon, and we mull wait 
till the enfumg fpring repair the damage ; befides, in. 
their long flight to this part of the world, they are fa- 
tnilhed by the tedioufnefs of their journey, and are there- 
fore more voracious wherever they happen to fettle *. 
But it is not by what they devour, that the locufts do 
lo much damage, as by what they deltroy ; their very 
bite is thought to contaminate the plant, aftd prevents its 
vegetation : to ufe the expreilion of the hulbandmen, 
they burn whatever they touch, and leave the marks of 
their devaftations for two or three years. The bite of 
many animals operates like a poifon to vegetables ; and 
if this be the cafe, it does not appear that the depreda- 
tions of thefe infefts can, in any country, be foon re- 
paired. 
Such are the fatal eflfe&s of the voracity of the locufts 
tvhile alive ; and when dead they fometimes prove ft ill 
tnore noxious, by infefting the air with a Bench that is 
tnfupportablc. Oiofius tells us, that in the year of the 
tvorld 3S00, there was an incredible number of thefe in- 
fefts which infeiled Africa ; and after having eaten up 
every thing that was green, they flew off, and were 
Vox, III. 3 G drowned 
Goldfmith’s Nat. I lift. Vol. 7th p. 34 y. 
.3 
