Grasshoppers are excellent prognosticators of a coming storm. They may be seen at times descending perpendicularly from a great height, like hail--a sign of approaching rain. At this time the air, as far as the eye can penetrate, appears filled with them. Early in the morning they commence their flight, and continue it till late in the afternoon, when they settle round the traveller in countless multitudes, clinging to the leaves of the grass, as if resting after their journey. They are fearful depredators. Not only do they destroy the husbandman's crops, but so voracious are they, that they will attack every article left even for a few minutes on the ground--saddle-girths, leather bags, and clothing of all descriptions, are devoured without distinction. Mr Hind says that ten minutes sufficed for them to destroy three pairs of woollen trousers which had been carelessly thrown on the grass. The only way to protect property from these depredators is to pile it on a waggon or cart out of reach. Two distinct broods of grasshoppers appear--one with wings not yet formed, which has been hatched on the spot; the other, full-grown invaders from the southern latitudes. They sometimes make their appearance at Red River. However, Mr Ross, for long a resident in that region, states that from 1819, when the colonists' scanty crops were destroyed by grasshoppers, to 1856, they had not returned in sufficient numbers to commit any material damage. Their ravages, indeed, are not to be compared to those committed by the red locust in Egypt; and yet Egypt has ever been one of the chief granaries of the world. PART TWO, CHAPTER ONE. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA. MEXICO.