Germany from the attacks of a small beetle, (Bostrichus Typographus, F.,) so called on account of a fancied resemblance between the paths it erodes and letters, which bores into the fir. This insect, in its preparatory state, feeds upon the soft inner bark only: but it attacks this important part in such vast numbers, 80,000 being sometimes found in a single tree, that it is infinitely more noxious than any of those that bore into the wood: and such is its vitality, that though the bark be battered and the tree plunged into water, or laid upon the ice or snow, it remains alive and unhurt. The leaves of the trees infested by these insects first become yellow, the trees themselves then die at the top, and soon entirely perish. Their ravages have long been known in Germany under the name of Wurm trökniss (decay caused by worms); and in the old liturgies of that country the animal itself is formally mentioned under its vulgar appellation, "The Turk." This pest was particularly prevalent and caused incalculable mischief about the year 1665. In the beginning of the last century it again showed itself in the Hartz forests-it reappeared in 1757, redoubled its injuries in 1769, and arrived at its height in 1783, when the number of trees destroyed by it in the above forests alone, was calculated at a million and a half, and the inhabitants were threatened with a total suspension of the working of their mines, and consequent ruin. At this period these Bostrichi, when arrived at their perfect state, migrated in swarms like bees into Suabia and Franconia. At length, between the years 1784 and 1789, in consequence of a succession of cold and moist seasons, the numbers of this scourge were sensibly diminished. It appeared again however in 1790, and so late as 1796

there was great reason to fear for the few fir-trees that were left 2.

The seeds of forest- as well as of fruit-trees are doubtless subject to injuries from the same quarter, but these being more out of the reach of observation, have not been much noticed. Acorns, however, a considerable article with nurserymen, are said to have both a moth and a beetle that prey upon them; and what is remarkable, though sometimes one larva of each is found in the same acorn, yet two of either kind are never to be met with together. The beetle is probably the Curculio Glandium of Mr. Marsham, and is nearly related to the species whose grub inhabits the nut.

Having now conducted you round and exhibited to you the melancholy proofs of the universal dominion of insects over our vegetable treasures, while growing or endued with the principle of vitality, in their separate departments, I must next introduce you to a pest worse than all put together, which indiscriminately attacks and destroys every vegetable substance that the earth produces, and which, wherever it prevails, carries famine, pestilence and death in its train. Happily for this country and we cannot be too thankful for the privilege, we know this scourge of nations only by report. The name of Locust, which has been such a sound of horror in other countries, here only suggests an object of interesting inquiry. But the ravages of locusts are so copious a theme that they merit to be considered in a separate letter.

I am, &c.

Wilhelm's Recreations from Nat. Hist. quoted by Latreille Hist.

Nat. xi. 194.

Reaum. ii. 502.

LETTER VII.

INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS.

INDIRECT INJURIES CONTINUED.

To look at a locust in a cabinet of insects, you would not, at first sight, deem it capable of being the source of so much evil to mankind as stands on record against it. "This is but a small creature," you would say, "and the mischief which it causes cannot be far beyond the proportion of its bulk. The locusts so celebrated in history must surely be of the Indian kind mentioned by Pliny, which were three feet in length, with legs so strong that the women used them as saws. I see indeed some resemblance to the horse's head, but where are the eyes of the elephant, the neck of the bull, the horns of the stag, the chest of the lion, the belly of the scorpion, the wings of the eagle, the thighs of the camel, the legs of the ostrich, and the tail of the serpent, all of which the Arabians mention as attributes of this widely dreaded insect destroyer; but of which in the insect before me I discern little or no likeness?" Yet, although this animal be not very tremendous for its size, nor very terrific in its appearance, it is the very same whose ravages have been the theme of naturalists and historians in all ages, and upon a close examination you will find it to be peculiarly fitted and furnished for the execution of its

Bochart, Hierozoic. P. ii, l. iv. c. 5. 475..

office. It is armed with two pair of very strong jaws, the upper terminating in short and the lower in long teeth, by which it can both lacerate and grind its foodits stomach is of extraordinary capacity and powers-its hind legs enable it to leap to a considerable distance, and its ample vans are calculated to catch the wind as sails, and so to carry it sometimes over the sea; and although a single individual can effect but little evil, yet when the entire surface of a country is covered by them, and every one makes bare the spot on which it stands, the mischief produced may be as infinite as their numbers. So well do the Arabians know their power, that they make a locust say to Mahomet-" We are the army of the Great God; we produce ninety-nine eggs; if the hundred were completed, we should consume the whole earth and all that is in it."

Since it is possible you may not have paid particular attention to the accounts given by various authors both ancient and modern, of the almost incredible injury done to the human race by these creatures, I shall now lay before you some of the most striking particulars of their devastations that I have been able to collect.

The earliest plague of this kind which has been recorded, appears also to have been the most direful in its immediate effects that ever was inflicted upon any nation. I am speaking, as you may well suppose, of the locusts with which the Egyptian tyrant and his people were visited for their oppression of the Israelites. Only conceive to yourself a country so covered by them that no one can see the face of the ground-a whole land darkened, and all its produce, whether herb or tree, so

Bochart, ubi supr. c. 6. 485.

devoured that not the least vestige of green is left in either. But it is not necessary for me to enlarge further upon a history the circumstances of which are so well known to you.

To this species of devastation Africa in general seems always to have been peculiarly subject. This may be gathered from the law in Cyrenaica mentioned by Pliny, by which the inhabitants were enjoined to destroy the locusts in three different states, three times in the year -first their eggs, then their young, and lastly the perfect insect". And not without reason was such a law enacted; for Orosius tells us that in the year of the world 3,800 Africa was infested by such infinite myriads of these animals, that having devoured every green thing, after flying off to sea they were drowned, and being cast upon the shore they emitted a stench greater than could have been produced by the carcases of 100,000 men. St. Augustine also mentions a plague to have arisen in that country from the same cause, which destroyed no less than 800, 000 persons (octingenta hominum millia) in the kingdom of Masanissa alone, and many more in the territories bordering upon the sea".

From Africa this plague was occasionally imported into Italy and Spain; and a historian quoted in Mouffet relates that in the year 591 an infinite army of locusts of a size unusually large, grievously ravaged part of Italy; and being at last cast into the sea, from their stench arose a pestilence which carried off near a million of men and

a Exod. x. 5. 14, 15. b Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 29. A similar law was enacted in Lemnos, by which every one was compelled to bring a certain measure of locusts annually to the magistrates. Plin. Oros. contra Pag. 1. v. c. 2. d Lesser, L. 247. note 46.

ibid.