The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-29
BUGS ON THE TRACK.
They Swarm in a Quarry and Stop
q Locomotive.
Thousands or tho Insects Crushed be-
meath the Iron Wheels with Re
ports Resembling Ex-
plodlng Torpedoes.

Southeast of Brighton Corners on the
Lackawanna railroad are extensive
limestone quarries which have been in
operation for many years and have
penetrated deeply into the rock, says a
Syracuse correspondent of tho New
York Tribune. Through the cut thus
track has been laid from the Lacka-
wanna road for the hauling of tho
hewn stone. Night work being ncces-
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 tho cars out,
the electric light was put in and IN
engine with the necessary crew left the
city for the quarrics. What was the
surprise Of all hands upon reaching the
scene of operations to find tho track
beneath the electric light completely
thronged with strange insects Of great
size, some of them lying perfectly still in
punches and some of them playing sort
ofleap-frog game. They covered a space
OF not less than sixty feet along tho
tracks, though toward either boundaryof
the occupied territory they grew fewer,
as the rays of light began to grow dim
mer. These pickcts, or slsirmishers,
were one and all of q most lively dispo-
sition, and ran over the ground with
that lightninglille rapidity which char
nctcrizcd the movements of the electric
light bugs that made their appearance
all over the country soon after the sys-
tenn of electric lighting became of gen
eral adoption in cities.
The locomotive continued on it's way.
and as the drivers rolled over the in
sects the insects died with q cracking
sound like the successive explosions of
toy torpcdoes- But this was at the be-
ginning of the swarm AS the iron
monster plowcd its way along the bugs
became moro numerous and the crack
ling grew to a monotonous din, rs
though some firccracker storehouse had
been touched off in q hundred places,
until in the thick of the swarm the en-
CINE was brought to stop. the drivers
refusing to catch on the now slippery
rails, creased by the crushed and
slaughtered bugs An examination of
the insects showed a resemblance to the
electric-light bug, though they are
somewhat larger than those bugs, tho
outer shell of the back being about the
size and shape of half shnnghai-crg
shell 1t was this turtle-lilse armor
with which the insects are couipped
that made the cracking sound rs the
wheels passed over them. The shell Is
black and partallcs of the nature of
stone, having a slatey structure and
being brittle This property of tho
shell set the more thoughtful people TO
thinking and observing. and after
time search along the sides of the cut
revealed innumcrable small holes in the
rock, which seemed to have been bored
into it By some agency not that Of man,
and in them were traces of q peculiar
ovula some Matched and some apparent
" blightcd An cruditc rccluse whose
abode is in the neighborhood of the
quarries had by this time appeared, for
news Of the strange occurrence had
spread rapidly. His opinion was that
the bugs that blocked the track were
the issue of rare species Of lithodome,
rock-boring mollusk-crosscd with some
kind Of predatory insect. To secure
the shipment of the freight it became
necessary to let the loaded train from
above in the quarry come down the
grade of the cut Gathering momentum
all the time, its impetus when it came
to the obstruction carried it by the
bugs.