204 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
dee, the harsh noise of their tiny drums fills the 
air with a continuous din. Soon the trees are 
draped in dead branches and foliage, as though 
a fire or an untimely frost had done its work of 
destruction. This devastation is caused by the 
new deposit of larvae ; they remain, however, but 
a short time on the trees. When mature they 
drop to the earth, and bury themselves for their 
long sleep of seventeen years. A terrible period, 
surely, to be swaddled in so dark and dismal a 
cradle, but it proves a safe one; for, prompt to 
the year, they come forth to render their turn 
of service in propagating the strength and glory 
of their ancestors. 
“ The first opportunity for observing this 
strange phase of insect life occurred to me in 
i860, in Atlantic County, New Jersey, where 
the ‘ locusts ’ filled the woods for many miles 
with noise and blighted branches. In passing 
through the infested district they were exceed¬ 
ingly annoying, not only exciting almost to 
madness our horses, but, by a persistent inva¬ 
sion of the carriage, crawling over our persons, 
until our curiosity was quite overbalanced by 
the torment which they inflicted. This circum¬ 
stance caused a careful note of the date to be 
