Even this happy island, so remarkably distinguished by its exemption from most of those scourges to which other nations are exposed, was once alarmed by the appearance of locusts. In 1748 they were observed here in considerable numbers, but providentially they soon perished without propagating. These were evidently stragglers from the vast swarms which in the preceding year did such infinite damage in Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, and Poland. One of these swarms, which entered Transylvania in August, was several hundred fathoms in width, (at Vienna the breadth of one of them was three miles,) and extended to so great a length, as to be four hours in passing over the Red Tower; and such was its density, that it totally intercepted the solar light, so that when they flew low, one person could not see another at the distance of twenty paces. - Philos. Trans, xlvi. 30. A similar account has been given by Major Moor, long resident in India. He relates, that when at Poonah, he was witness to an immense army of locusts which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to come from Arabia: this, if correct, is a strong proof of their power to pass the sea under favourable circumstances. The column they composed, extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it, when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object; and some lofty tombs, distant from his residence not more than two hundred yards, were rendered quite invisible. This was not the Gryllus migratorius, L. but a red species; which circumstance much increased the horror of the scene, for, clustering upon the trees after they had stripped them of their foliage, they imparted to them a sanguine hue. The peach was the ast tree they touched.

Dr. Clarke, to give some idea of the infinite numbers of these animals, compares them to a flight of snow when the flakes are carried obliquely by the wind. They covered his carriage and horses; and the Tartars assert, that people are sometimes suffocated by them. The whole face of nature might have been described as covered by a living veil. They consisted of two species, G. tartaricus, and migratorius, L.; the first is almost twice the size of the second, and, because it precedes it, is called by the Tartars, the herald or messenger.-Travels, i. 348. The account of another traveller, Mr. Barrow, of their ravages in the southern parts of Africa, in 1784, and 1797, is still more striking: an area of nearly two thousand square miles might be said literally to be covered by them. When driven into the sea by a n. w. wind, they formed upon the shore, for fifty miles, a bank three or four feet high; and when the wind was S. e. the stench was so powerful, as to be smelt at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles. - Travels, etc. 257.

From 1778 to 1780, the empire of Morocco was terribly devastated by them; every green thing was eaten up, not even the bitter bark of the orange and pomegranate escaping. A most dreadful famine ensued: the poor were seen to wander over the country, deriving a miserable subsistence from the roots of plants; and women and children followed the camels, from whose dung they picked the undigested grains of barley, which they devoured with avidity: in consequence of this, vast numbers perished, and the roads and streets exhibited the unburied carcases of the dead. On this sad occasion, fathers sold their children, and husbands their wives.- Southey's Thalaba, i. 171.

When they visit a country, (says Mr. Jackson, speaking of the same empire,) it behoves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for they stay from three to seven years. When they have devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, consuming first the leaves and then the bark. From Moga-dar to Tangier, before the plague in 1799, the face of the earth was covered by them: at that time a singular incident occurred at El Arisch. The whole region from the confines of Sahara was ravaged by them; but on the other side of the river El Kos, not one of them was to be seen, though there was nothing to prevent their flying over it. Till then, they had proceeded northward; but, upon arriving at its banks, they turned to the east, though all the country north of Arisch was full of pulse, fruits, and grain, exhibiting a most striking contrast to the desolation of the adjoining district. At length they were all carried by a violent hurricane into the western ocean; the shore, as in former instances, was covered by their carcases, and a pestilence was caused by the horrid stench which they emitted : but when this evil ceased, their devastations were followed by a most abundant crop. The Arabs of the desert, "whose hands are against every man," Gen. xvi. 12. and who rejoice in the evil that befalls other nations, when they behold the clouds of locusts proceeding from the north, are filled with gladness, anticipating a general mortality, which they call el Mere, (the benediction;) for, when a country is thus laid waste, they emerge from their arid deserts, and pitch their tents in the desolated plains. - Jackson's Travels in Morocco, 54.

The noise the locusts make when engaged in the work of destruction, has been compared to the sound of a flame of fire driven by the wind, and the effect of their bite to that of fire. - Bochart. A poet of our own day has very strikingly described the noise produced by their flight and approach:Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud Of congregated myriads, numberless, The rushing of whose wings was as the sound Of a broad river, headlong in its course Pluns'd from a mountain summit, or the roar Ora wild ocean in the autumn storm, Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks!

* Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said, "And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses run uing to battle." - Rev. ix. 9.

But no account of the appearance and ravages of these terrific insects, for correctness and sublimity, comes near to that of the prophet Joel: "A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle-array. Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses ; they shall enter in at the window! like a thief. The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining!" The usual way in which they are destroyed, is also noticed by the prophet. "I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, because he hath done great things!" - Joel ii. 2-10, 20.

The best method of destroying locusts, would be to recommend them as an article of food. In the Crimea, they are often eaten by the inhabitants. Some French emigrants, who had been directed in this manner, assured me, that when fried, they were very palatable and very wholesome. The Arabs, according to Hasselquist, eat them roasted, and are glad to get them.

It is quite certain that there is nothing endued by nature with peculiar functions, in vain; and it is equally certain, that matter, however modified, whether in the form of animated or inanimated bodies, is continually undergoing change. The more deeply we investigate the works of creation, the more strong will be our conviction of these truths.

We know that many animals, and particularly insects, have apparently no other employment, than that of clearing or purifying the surface of the earth of superfluous matter, the residuum of decayed bodies, or of reconverting it into useful forms, as I shall attempt to illustrate hereafter. Now, if we survey those regions which give birth to, and support, the vast clouds of locusts alluded to, our view will be confined principally to the extensive deserts of Africa and Asia; the vegetation of many of which, according to the reports of travellers, is abundant and luxuriant, beyond the conception of those who have not beheld them; insomuch, that the crops of grass, and other annual vegetables, absolutely load the earth; and these, perishing upon each other, would form an impenetrable, putrid mass, if not consumed by some animals appointed for the purpose.

That locusts support existence by vegetable food, is well known; but whether they have no other object than to consume the superabundant produce of the regions they frequent, and to procreate, is not so easily proved. One who has had no opportunity of witnessing their manners, from their birth to their final destruction, can scarcely be able positively to decide; but I have no doubt that an intelligent naturalist, (governed by the principles this chapter is intended, in some measure, to illustrate,) with the necessary opportunities, such as Dr. Shaw, in particular, had, would be able to get at facta that would indisputably prove the existence of locusts to be a blessing rather than a curse.

Whatever may be the direct object of their existence, locusts are of great use to many other animals, for there are some, particularly birds, that entirely prey upon them; and, if man himself refuses this food, it is rather from the prejudice, perhaps, of an absurd education, than from any improper or bad quality of the food itself.* The inhabitants of several eastern nations have a relish for this diet: and it is recorded of him who cried in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," that "his meat was locusts and wild honey." - Matthew iii. 4. After this, we cannot listen to the feeble remonstrances of any modern epicure.