greedy gulls. Verily, the Lord had not forgotten to be gracious !
To escape the birds, the crickets would rush into the lake or river, and thus millions were destroyed. Toward evening the gulls took flight and disappeared beyond the lake, but each day returned at sunrise, until the scourge was past.^^ Later grasshoppers seem to have taken the place of crickets. They were of a kind popularly called iron-clad, and did much mischief'^"
Though the crops of this year of 1848 were thus saved from total destruction, fears were entertained that there would not be food enough for those already in the valley, and the expected arrival of large additional numbers was looked upon as a calamity.^' The stock of provisions was therefore husbanded with care, many living principally on roots and
'^ Kane says that the gulls soon grew to be as tame as poultry, and that the children called them their pigeons. They had clear, dark eyes, small feet, and large wings that arched in flight. The Mormons, 67. ' No one is allowed to kill a gull in Utah, and they are consequently very tame.' Jenning's Ma- terial ^Progress, MS., 7. 'I am sure that the wheat was in head, and that it averaged two or tliree crickets on every head, bending them down. One couldn't step without crushing under foot as many as the foot could cover. ' Mrs Clara Young's Experiences of a Pioneer, MS., 9. 'Channels were dug and filled with water to prevent their travel, but they would throw them- selves across; it was impossible to fight them back.' Nebeker^s Early Judice, MS., 2. 'In the spring, when thousands of young trees had been started and were several inches in height, came the crickets. The wheat, too, was well in head.' Home's Migrations, MS., p. 28.
^Says Mr Jennings: 'They would devastate hundreds of acres, and as they would rise and fly high in the air, the air would be darkened with them. They seemed to be massed together, and to take but one direction, flying eight or ten miles perhaps, then settling upon another field . . . The only extermi- nator seems to be the sea-gulls. They gorge themselves on this rich diet; they suddenly appear in the wake of the grasshoppers, and will swallow them, throw them up, and swallow them again. . .Sometimes the grasshoppers come like a cloud, and apparently alighting not knowing where; on one occasion a quarter of their number perhaps di'opped into the lake, and were blown on shore by the wind, in rows of sometimes two feet deep for a distance of two miles.' Material Progress, MS., 6-7.
- ^ ' Word was sent back that probably no crops could be raised that year,
and advising that no further emigrations should come in that season.' Mrs Clara Young's Experiences of a Pioneer, MS., 9. John Young wished to send an express to his brother, the president, advising him not to bring any more peo- ple to the valley, as there was danger of starvation. Utah Early Records, MS. , 30-2. Parley P. Pratt writes: 'I had a good harvest of wheat and rye with- out irrigation, but those who irrigated had double the quantity. Wheat harvest commenced early in July . . . Oats do extremely well, yielding sixty bushels for one.' Hist. B. Young, M
