Lowe informed Sir C.
Lyell that in November, 1844, swarms of locusts visited the island of Madeira.
They were in countless numbers, as thick as the flakes of snow in the heaviest snowstorm, and extended upward as far as could be seen with a telescope.
During two or three days they slowly careered round and round in an immense ellipse, at least five or six miles in diameter, and at night alighted on the taller trees, which were completely coated with them.