An Extract of A Letter Written from Aramont in Languedoc Near Avignon, Giving An Account of An Extraordinary Swarm of Grashoppers in Those Parts; Communicated By Mr. Justell R. S. S.

Whence the middle of this Eclipse should have hapned at 11h. 18min. P. M. at Nuremburgh: the total duration 3h. 52min. 30sec. and the total darkness 1h. 49m. 3os. The Meridian Altitude of the Moon's upper limb was observed 63gr. 23m. 50sec. and the Moon's apparent Diameter while totally Eclipsed was found 30m. 7sec. The other Observer Mr. Wurtzelbaur made use of the Pendulum Clock, corrected by Altitudes. According to his Observation. 9h. 23m. 30sec. was the beginning of the Eclipse, at about 119 degrees of the limb of the Moon in Hevelius's Selenography. 9h. 24m 50sec. Paulus Mareotis was all covered. 10h. 25m. 20sec. The Total Immersion; about the 299th degree of the limb of the Moon. 12h. 11m. 30sec. The Moon began to emerge out of the shadow, about the 112th degree of her limb. 13h. 14m. 30sec. The End of the Eclipse about the 295th degree of the limb. By these Observations the middle of the Eclipse ought to have been about 11h. 12m. P. M. at Nuremburg, differing but one minute from Mr. Eimmart's Observation. The duration will be 3h. 51min. and the total Darkness 1h. 46m. The Longitude of Nuremburg has been formerly stated 11 degrees from London, and since found to be so by Observations of the last Eclipse of the Sun July 2d 1684, which made it 44½ min. of time. So that the middle of this Eclipse at London should have been 10h. 34½m. which from the Observation of Mr. Hevelius had been formerly concluded 10h. 35m. An Extract of a Letter written from Aramont in Languedoc near Avignon, giving an account of an extraordinary swarm of Grasshoppers in those parts; communicated by Mr. Jusell R. S. S. Since you demand of me a Relation of the Grass-hoppers that have eaten up our Harvest the last Year, and which give give us so much trouble to destroy them this, I will do what I at present can to satisfy you. These Insects are undoubtedly of a peculiar species, although to look on them, they appear in nothing different from the common sort, but they take their flight like Birds, which is particular to them. They are much about an Inch in length, of a Grey Colour; The last Year the Earth in some Places was covered 4 fingers thick with them in the morning before the heat of the Sun was considerable, but as soon as it begun to be hot, they took wing and fell upon the Corn, eating up both leaf and ear, and that with such expedition, by reason of their great number, that in three hours they would devour the Corn of a whole field, which you will hardly conceive unless you had seen it, after which they again took wing, and their swarms were so thick that they covered the Sun like a Cloud, and were whole hours in passing. They flew against the Wind, and went over the Castle, which is very high, and seas’d upon another field of Corn, which they destroyed like the former. After having eaten up the Corn, they fell upon the Vines, the Pulse, the Willows, and even the Hemp, notwithstanding its great Bitterness. Afterwards, about the end of August, they ceased flying, and copulated, and the Female struck her tail into the hard Earth, where she cast a foam, and made therewith in the ground, a hole as big as that of a Goose quill, and about an Inch long, wherein she laid her Eggs, which are much of the Size of Millet seed; there would be sometimes 50 of these Eggs in a hole, which are so covered over with the same Earth, that the Water does not get in. After this all these Insects died and stunk very much. They begun this Year to hatch in the Month of April, and some there are, that are not yet hatched. In March, we thought upon destroying their Eggs which lie not above a finger’s breadth in the Earth, and we took of them 180 Quintals, being 9 Tons: it had been well if we had thought of this Expedient sooner. Since their hatching they have taken above 15 Tons of the young Grasshoppers. hoppers which are not yet bigger than flies. There are yet a multitude that have escaped us, because they are in the Corn, which is too forward to be gone into, without spoiling it. They have undone the People of our Parts, who had no Harvest the last Year, and it will cost above 3000 Livers to destroy them this Year. They have taken them in Abundance in the neighbouring Villages. If this care had not been taken, there would have been enough of them to have eaten up the Corn of the whole Province. Whereas in the last Transaction an Historical Account was promised of the Trade Winds, the Patience of the Reader is entreated till the next; for by reason of the Absence of a Person extraordinarily knowing in this Matter, whose Information was thought necessary, the said Account could not as yet be perfected. Erratum in Num. 181. Pag. 112. l. 6. r. a Northerly Wind, and in Scotland a Southerly. Printed by J. Streater, and are to be sold by Sam. Smith at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church yard.