INSECTS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
By J. C. Gregory
[BRO. SMITH: I send you this extract from the Mercantile Journal for publication, if you think it worthy. J. C. GREGORY.] Fossil insects of the most gigantic size have recently been found in the coal-beds of Nova Scotia. They must have been considered foemen worthy of their steel by the huge animals of the antediluvian period. Those Nova Scotian ephemerina measure fully seven inches across the wings; and the rushing sound produced by millions of the creatures in motion, must have been deafening to human ears, if any there were in their neighborhood to hear them. Four specimens of these insects are considered the oldest in existence. They came from New Brunswick. One of them was provided with a musical apparatus like that of the cricket. The insect world in our day is giving us several new sensations. The Sandwich Islands are annoyed this summer with the presence of a terrible, stinging fly, never known before. It is believed by the natives, and even by scientific Europeans, to be one of the consequences of the late fearful, volcanic eruptions. Utah is afflicted with a monstrous, black beetle two or three inches long, which appears in swarms of many acres in extent, covering the surface so thickly that it is impossible to walk or ride across lots without treading on them. On the roads, the hoofs of horses and the wheels of wagons go crushing among them, as though passing over so many filberts of great size. In many cases, their shells are so hard as to resist the weight of a man. Rhode Island, too, witnessed an unusual sight the other day. A swarm of the familiar field-fly, known as the “darning needle,” passed over the country in such force that it looked like a dense cloud, and cast a heavy shadow.