Report of Society's Meetings. 295 
steamed down to Philadelphia, on the left bank of the Canje, where, we 
had been told, the locusts had done great damage. The lands of this 
old sugar estate which is rented out by a number of Africans and coolies, 
have been much more efficiently cultivated than those on the right bank 
of the creek immediately opposite, viz., Goodland, and the locusts have 
done much more destruction in them. The maize and cassava 
have been completely stripped over large areas, the former being re- 
duced to dry stems and midribs, the latter to long sticks, in many cases 
denuded of bark and not crowned by the more usually occurring re- 
growth of young leaves. Locusts of the old stock, chiefly males, were 
hopping about in considerable numbers — but they seemed in a sickly 
condition. Dead insects of both sexes strewed the ground in a dried 
up state ; very few shewed any marks of having been destroyed by ants 
or other enemies. The young insects had already begun to hatch 
throughout the plantations ; and on the lower section of the estate we 
found them in swarms, covering indiscriminately all green matter and, 
in many parts resting on the ground or dried leaves and fallen timber. 
When disturbed they rose by short hops and produced a sound like fall- 
ing rain. 
They seemed very gregarious, and completely to cover the object on 
which they settled. The leaves of the young plantains which touch, or 
are close to the ground, are readily attacked, and the young trumpet 
trees seemed to be particularly attractive. Objects on or close to the 
ground are much more liable to be attacked by the very young locusts. 
The eggs were found in astonishing quantities and in fact formed the 
chief part in the cassava heaps in different parts. When the total 
number has been hatched the ground will literally be covered by them. 
The people had made no attempt to destroy either the locusts or the 
eggs — the coolies accustomed to such visitations in their own country, 
appear to attach very little importance to the subject. The rice had 
apparently not suffered at all. The cleared land and cultivated district 
of Philadelphia, amid the surrounding woods, had offered peculiar 
advantages to the locusts, and these had been readily seized by 
them. 
We returned to Rose Hall on Sunday evening. On Monday morning 
we started early for Friends to examine into what we heard of on the 
Thursday previous. In company with Mr. Hunter, we rode through 
a high mora reef with very stiff and hard soil to the provision grounds 
at the back, where some abandoned canefields had been taken up by 
the labourers and had been planted out with the usual kinds of 
