The Grasshoppers

[Omaha Cor. UHttmgo imrr-occíin.j The writer was in Ornaba when the boppers ware rirst soon in this vioinity. Thoir appearanoe, os we looked toward the snn, was amost identically that of largo snowrlakes. The wind was blowing at the rato of twelvc miles an hour to the west of ïiorth, and their course was the samo. About 11 o'clock clook a. ra. they were fust observed, with only an oocasional straggler coming to the ground ; about 2 o'elock they bogan 1 lighting, and at oucc weut to work j fying a ravenous appetite. As they approach nearer the earth in their' descent á uoise is produced like th; buzzing of a swarm of bees. After lighting the gronud is not cverywhere eqnall.v covered with them. Home ftólds in the same neighborhood are spared, while orops in others are tiiken - and taken BO quiokly as to be incredible to teil. The infinite deeimals of teetli to gnaw, anda like number of stotnachs to siitinfy, make epeedy work of devastiiting a lield of growing wluiat, oats, barley, oorD, po tatoes, or cabhagc. Before nightfall they appearod to be in motion, but only abovo the top of vegetation, and a stranger to their habits knows not the meaniiig of such movement; and it was not made apparent till the night had passed. At 5:45 next mormng (is soon as the dew had evaporated) tliey began üke chickens llying down from roosting places, and havoc was made of the nearest vegetation. At 10 o'clock the air was again fllled with new-comers sailiag in the same route of thoae of yesterday, only, if poswiblo, more of them. The chief part of them fly at a great height, and are discernible only by looking toward the sun or a cloud. Those that stop seem to belong to a lower stratum, and when on the wing rifle high enough only to avoid the tops of trees and bluffs. At 2 o'clock p. m. those that stopped with U8 the night before began rising and leaving, and by 4 o'clock not enough remained to do auy mischief. At 5 o'clock others came, and the next twelve hours was a repetition of their condnet the night bofore. Un VV eunesuay morumg llio air was fllled wifch them an hour earlier than on yesterday, fiivored with a hot sun and a brisk gale from the samo direction for the last forty-eight hours. Thoae that tarried with ns from Tnesday evening raised up to aceouipany their friend.s in their voy ugo Dakotaward. Af ter their departure no more alightcd during the der?, btft the sun was partially eoncenled tili '2 o'cloek p. m. by tlie great throng making liaste to reach sonie región that will be more congenial to their utay. At the last-named hour the number living was perceptibly fewer, and an hour later very few could be seen in the air, and we werc temporarily rid of tlicm. If all the grassh oppers that have passed over this city in the past threo days had lighte'd, a belt of country from this to the south line of Dakota would havo been covered two f eet in depth. And if a like number has gone over a greater shiive of the arca of this State, the same is true of the whole as woll as a part. Pity the people of the región where they I may light! Uestitution or starvation awaits them, except relief bo furnished from abroad. Those who havo been accustomed to the pests in Kansas are of the opinión that the continuous wind from the same direction for the past three days has so ïavored their ftight that the likclihood of their having left us for this season is encóuraging. They are pestilcntial as cholera, and as nncontrollable. If the partios appointcd by anthority to investígate them can make any advances in a discovery of their origin, or improviso a method of anuihilation beforo the iledging pu'iod, they will deserve beiug pensíoikhI by Congress for a lifetime. Yestarday I visited several farms and ondcavored to form a jndgment as to the proportion of damage done to crops; but without more help than I had an accurate estímate could not be made. Then I must add the outcome that will take place in some fields, about which I can teil nothing, as it is dependent upon the seasonablcness of the weather for the remaindcr of the crop-growing season. I venture to say that, if the grasshoppers let us alone heneeforward, the crops in this vicinity will average one half of what uhey would have been before their coming.