Note 165 — CHAP. XII. INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS—A COPIOUS LIST OF MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS. BY THE EDITOR.

Adanson relates, that soon after his arrival in Senegal, he was a witness to the mischief done by locusts, that scourge so dreadful to hot climates! Towards eight o’clock in the morning there suddenly arose a thick cloud that darkened the air, and obstructed the rays of the sun; the cause of which was soon found to be myriads of locusts, raised about twenty or thirty fathoms from the ground, and covering an extent of several leagues, upon which a shower of these insects fell, devouring while they rested themselves, and then resuming their flight. This cloud was brought by a very strong easterly wind; it was all the morning passing over the adjacent country, and it was supposed the same wind drove the locusts into the sea. They spread desolation wherever they came; after devouring the herbage, with the fruits and leaves of trees, they attacked even the buds and the very bark; they did not so much as spare the dry reeds with which the huts were thatched. Hasselquist in his Voyage to the Levant, says that “the inhabitants of Asia sometimes take the field against locusts with all the apparatus of war. The bashaw of Tripoli in Syria some years ago raised 4000 soldiers against these insects, and ordered those to be hanged who refused to go.” Amidst the numerous blessings our own favoured isle enjoys, what a happiness it is to be exempted from the ravages of these pernicious insects, as well as from the government of bashaws! In the year 1748 great numbers of the grylli migratorii were seen in London and its vicinity, but they were not productive of any mischief, and soon perished.

[166] These unpleasant domestics were scarcely observed in England previous to the fire of London in the year 1666. It is conjectured that they were afterwards introduced with the limber imported for re-building the houses: allowing this to be the fact, posterity may console themselves with the inconveniences they sustain from this evil, by reflecting how much benefit they have derived in other respects from the unhappy catastrophe which produced it.