In July, 1827, the Russian General Cobley had a grand battle with the
locusts, on his estate of Coblewka, along the borders of the Sea of
Oschakoff. The locusts were marching in twenty-four columns, and were
destroying all the crops. General Cobley collected the peasants on his
estate, and from all the neighboring country, amounting to five hundred
persons. They were armed with pitchforks, spades, drums, and bells;
and, thus equipped, they commenced their march against the invaders.
They soon compelled them to retreat, and pursued them incessantly
towards the sea, where they were forced to jump into the water, and
were drowned. Three days afterwards, the sea-shore was covered with the
dead locusts, cast up by the waves; the air was infected by a fetid
exhalation, and great numbers of poisoned fish were cast up by the
waves on the strand. It is probable that the fish had fed on the
locusts.