LOCUST. 
315 
of the wind. The traces of their route over the 
country remain for many weeks after they have 
passed it, the surface appearing as if swept by a 
broom, or as if a harrow had been drawn over it. 
Towards the setting of the sun the march is dis- 
continued, when the troop divides into separate 
companies, which surround the small shrubs, or 
tufts of grass, or ant-hills, and in such thick clus- 
ters that they appear like so many swarms of bees ; 
and in this manner they rest till day-light. It is 
at such times only, when they are thus formed into 
groups, that the farmers have any chance of de- 
stroying them, which they sometimes effect by 
driving among them a flock of two or three thou- 
sand sheep, by whose restlessness they are trampled 
to death. 
“ Luckily the visits of this gregarious insect are 
but periodical, otherwise the whole country must 
inevitably be deserted, as wherever they appear 
they rest, as the prophet in Holy Writ hath said, 
£ upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.’ Even at 
this time the cattle in many parts of Sneuwberg 
are starving for want of food. The present year * is 
the third of their continuance, and their increase 
has far exceeded that of a geometrical progression 
whose ratio is a million. For ten years preceding 
their present visit, the colony had been entirely 
free from them. Their last departure was rather 
singular. All the full-grown insects were driven 
* 1797 - 
