Grasshopper-Infested Glaciers

Among America’s natural curiosities are “grasshopper glaciers.” These are great masses of glacial ice containing layers of imbedded, frozen grasshoppers. Such layers are probably remnants of vast migrations which have taken place at irregular intervals over several centuries. Great hordes of the insects either flew over the glacier or were carried there by winds, and while there sudden snow storms or cold air rising from the ice field caused them to drop. They were imbedded so quickly in the falling snow, which later became ice, that they have remained perfectly preserved for centuries. The most notable of these glaciers is in the Beartooth mountains of Montana. Others have been reported from the high mountains of Africa.