nd regulations; and that those we
first came upon were, like the sentinels of an army, placed to give
warning of coming danger. If such is the case at times, they gave no
notice of our approach, but merely skipped and jumped about, and knocked
against our legs as we walked by.

"It's a good job these beasts have no fancy for eating meat as well as
vegetables," observed Ned. "If they once began upon us, there wouldn't
be much of us left in the course of an hour."

As, however, they neither sting nor bite, they did us no harm, though
they skipped about us in millions as we advanced, while numbers were
crushed every time we put our feet to the ground. We proceeded for
upwards of an hour through this moving mass of life, till we stood
literally in the centre of a sea of locusts. It was necessary to push
on to get from among them before dark, as we had no fancy to attempt to
rest among such unquiet companions. It took us more than another
half-hour to get clear of them; and we calculated that they covered a
space four to five miles broad at the place we found them. We then came
upon the ground which they had occupied, and the most ruthless of
invaders could not have destroyed a country more completely than they
had done. Not a blade of grass remained; every tree and shrub was
leafless, and their branches were stripped of their bark. We could not
help looking with painful amazement on the scene of desolation which
those small animals had caused. Not only would they, as Ned Gale said,
have eaten us up had they been carnivorous, but they might have devoured
Pizarro and the army with which he conquered Peru in the course of a
night. For miles in advance they had left traces of their visit. We
congratulated ourselves on having brought water with us, as we could
find none in the neighbourhood. What became of this vast flight of
locusts I could not tell. I only hope they flew into the sea, or died
from repletion; for had they gone on consuming as much daily as we saw
them destroy, they might lay a whole province desolate in the course of
a few weeks.

We walked on till it was quite dark before we could find a sheltered
spot in which to bivouac. At last we reached a deep hollow, which at
one period of the world's history had been probably part of a
watercourse, but owing to some convulsion of nature, it was now
perfectly dry. Trees grew on the upper edges, and the sides were
covered with brushwood. It appeared, as