minate them is a problem. I have seen a mass of locusts so
dense that a row of large trees the other side of them could not be
distinguished. Sailing along the Antique coast one evening, I observed,
on the fertile shore, a large brown-coloured plateau. For the moment I
thought it was a tract of land which had been cleared by fire, but on
nearing it I noticed that myriads of locusts had settled on several
fields. We put in quite close to them and I fired off a revolver,
the noise of which caused them to move off slowly in a cloud. When
locusts settle on cultivated lands, miles of crops are often ruined
in a night by the foliage being consumed, and at daybreak only fields
of stalks are to be seen. In the daytime, when the locusts are about
to attack a planted field, the natives rush out with their tin cans,
which serve as drums, bamboo clappers, red flags, etc., to scare
them off, whilst others light fires in open spaces with damp fuel to
raise smoke. Another effective method adopted to drive them away is to
fire off small mortars, such as the natives use at provincial feasts,
as these insects are sensitive to the least noise.

The body of a locust is similar in appearance to a large
grasshopper. The females are of a dark brown colour, and the males of
a light reddish-brown. The female extends the extremity of her body
in the form of an augur, with which she pierces the earth to the depth
of an inch, there to deposit her eggs. In two or three weeks the eggs
hatch. Every few days the females lay eggs, if allowed to settle. The
newly-born insects, having no wings until they are about ten days
old, cannot be driven off, and in the meantime they make great havoc
among the crops, where it is difficult to extinguish them. The method
employed to get rid of them is to place a barrier, such as sheets of
corrugated iron roofing, at one side of a field, dig a pit in front of
the barrier, and send a number of men to beat round the three sides
of the field until the young locusts jump in heaps into the pit. I
have heard planters say that they have succeeded, in this way, in
destroying as much as 20 tons of locusts in one season. I do not know
the maximum distance that locusts can fly in one continuous journey,
but they have been known to travel as much as 60 miles across the
sea. Millions of unwinged locusts (called _lucton_) have been seen
floating down river streams, whilst, however, the winged insect cannot
resist the heavy rains w