A LOCUST SWARM.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 361, 21 February 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

A LOCUST SWARM.

A novel experience for a newcomer to South Africa is to "encounter a locust swarm. To dwellers on the High Veldt the sight is not u Usual, but one’s first acquaintance with thp past is somewhat startling. A party of “newjy-outs” was taking the journey to the Victoria Falls. When halfway across the Karoo, on a bright, sunny day, the sun suddenly became obscured, dnd the sky seemed to turn black. The ladies screamed m alarm; they thought it meant an earthquake, or at least a violent tropical thunderstorm, but a voice along the corridor ot the train, shouting, “Locusts swarming —close all doors and windows,” explained the peculiar darkness, and partly <almed the feminine fears. The order was obeyed, and the passengers watched developments. The gigantic mass swooped down on the train, covering coaches and rails, and beating themselves against the windows. blotting out all light. The train slowed down to half-speed, for the crushed bodies make the rails terribly greasy, and there was a nasty, crunching sound as the wheels squashed thousands of these unwelcome visitors. After a while the swarm (minus casualties) made off in an opposite direction as suddenly as it had come, and once more brilliant sunshine reigned supreme. These locusts are about three inches long, and look like giant grasshoppers. Singly, they are not dangerous at all but in’swarms they are a menace to the crops. They will attack a village or farm, and devastate it in a night, leaving all the gardens and fields perfectly bare. Not a blade of grass escapes them. A visit from locusts is one of the many disasters which befall the struggling South African farmer.