The presence of the grasshoppers upon the Canadian prairies is one of
interest. It is known that they appeared throughout the territory of Red
River a dozen years or so before the coming of the Selkirk Colonists,
also during the period we have been describing, and then not till the
period from 1868 to 1875. During the latter half of this period the
writer saw their devastations in Manitoba. The occurrence of the
grasshopper at times in all agricultural districts in America is very
different from the grasshopper or locust plague which we are describing.
The red-legged Caloptenus or the Rocky Mountain locust are provided for
lofty flight and pass in myriads over the prairies, lighting whenever a
cloud obscures the sun. At one time the writer saw them in such hordes
that they were found from Winnipeg to Edmonton, over a region about one
thousand miles in breadth. In that year they devoured not only crops and
garden products but almost completely ate up the grass on the prairie to
such an extent as to make it useless for hay. In the year 1875 they
appeared, in the main, for the last time in Manitoba, and in that year
their disappearance was as sudden as in the former case of 1821.
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