The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1891-11-16
BUGS ON THE TRACK.
They Swarm in a Quarry and Stop
a Locomotive.
Thousands of the Insects Crushed Be-
meath the Iron Wheels with Re
ports Resembling Ex-
ploding Torpedoes

Southeast of Brighton Corners on the
Laelawanna railroad are extensive
limestone quarries which have been in
operation for many years and have
penetrated deeply into the rock, says a
4 Syracuse correspondent of the New
York Tribune. Through the cut thus
made and into the quarries branch
track has been laid from the Lacka-
wanna road for the hauling of the
hewn stone. Night work being neces-
sary large part of the time, an arc
light has been placed high over the
track of the darkest part of the cut.
Several cars were loaded for shipment
and left on the switch pending the
observance of Memorial day. At night,
in preparation for drawing the cars out,
the electric light was put in and an
engine with the necessary crew left the
city for the quarl'ies. What was the
surprise of all hands upon reaching the
scene of operations to find the track
beneath the electric light completely
thronged with strange insects of great
size, some of them lying perfectly still in
lunches and some Of them playing a sort
ofleap-frog game. They covered a space
of not less than sixty feet along the
tracks, though towardeither boundary of
the occupied territory they grew fewer,
as the rays of light began to grow dim
mer. These piekets, or sllirmishers,
were one and all of a most lively dispo-
sition, and ran over the ground with
that lightninglil1e rapidity which char
oct
light bugs that made their appearance
all over the country soon after the sys-
TEN Of electric lighting became of gen
eral adoption in cities.
The locomotive continued on its way,
and as the drivers rolled over the in
sects the insects died with a cracking
sound like the successive explosions of
toy torpedoes. But this was at the be-
ginning of the swarm. As the iron
plowed its way along the bugs
became more numerous and the crack
ling grew to a monctonous din, as
though some firecracker storehouse had
been touched off in hundred places,
until in the thick of the swarm the en-
gine was brought to stop, the drivers
to catch on the now slippery
rails, creased by the crushed and
slaughtered bugs. An examination of
the insects showed a resemblance to the
bug, though they are
somewhat larger than those bugs, the
outer shell Of the back being about the
size and shape of half a shanghai-egg
she'll IL was this turtle-lil1e armor
with which the insects are equipped
5hat made the cracking sound as the
vheels passed over them. The shell is
black and pGrtal1es of the nature of
stone, having a slatey structure and
being brittle. This property Of the
set the more thoughtful people to
and observing, and after a
time search along the sides Of the cut
innumerablc small holes in the
'oclS, watch seemed to have been bored
nto it by some agency not that OF man,
md in them were traces of a peculiar
'vvlla some Matched and some apparent
y blghted. An erudite recluse whose
-bode is in the rcighborhood of the
Luarries had by this time appeared, for
Jews Of the strange occurrence had
prcad rapidly. His opinion was that
nc bugs that blocked the track were
he issue Of q rare species of lithodome. a
mollusll-crossed with some
lad Of predatory insect. To secure
be shipment of the freight it became
ecessary to let the loaded train from
boye in the quarry come down the
rade Of the cut. Gathering momentum
Il the time, its impetus when it came
, the obstruction carried it by the
ugs.