DR. H. F. HANCE ON CHINESE SILKWORM-OAK5. 13 
thousands of little black larvee are seen moving about the basket, 
which are immediately carried to the hills, and deposited on the 
trees, the leaves of which (for it is only the end of March or the 
beginning of April) are only half expanded. Here they are left 
night and day, in rain or wind. There is no need to watch 
them by night; but some one keeps at hand during the day to 
frighten away the birds, and to help the worms to pass from one 
tree to another, and pick up such as may have been blown down 
or have fallen to the ground. 
* The worms change colour four times: at first they are black, 
later violet, some afterwards yellow, and finally a blackish violet. 
It takes forty or fifty days to attain this last stage; and they are 
then as thick as a man’s little finger. They show a special in- 
stinct in protecting themselves against the weather; when it 
rains they move to the under surface of a leaf, and when cold 
winds prevail they shelter themselves on the least-exposed side 
of the leaf. Towards the end of March 1840 I was staying 
amongst a Christian community where these worms were reared 
in great numbers; on the 28th the newly hatched worms were 
on the trees, on the 30th snow fell, and the three succeeding 
days were so piercingly cold that within doors it was impossible 
to leave the fire. I said to my Christians, * Your silkworms will 
surely all die with this weather.’ ‘Oh! no, they answered, 
*they are a little numbed by the cold, naturally, but they won't 
die.” Nor did they; for, happening on the 3rd of April to pass 
by the place where the worms were on the trees, I saw them 
eating greedily. 
* After devouring the leaves for forty or fifty days, they begin 
to spin cocoons, which are rather more than an inch long, as 
thick as a walnut, and of a somewhat whitish-yellow colour. As 
some worms are always stronger than the others, so also there 
are cocoons of a larger size than usual. They are spun on a leaf 
rolled round into a hollow cone or funnel; and if one is not 
sufficiently large, two are fastened together. The worms com. 
mence by weaving the outside of the cocoon, in which they then 
shut themselves up and spin the remainder, the whole task 
occupying only three days. The date of collection of these 
cocoons varies according to locality; thus in the plains and at 
slight elevations, they are gathered in from the 20th to the 
24th May, or a few days later, whilst on the mountains of 
Qweichow this is not done until the 15th to 20th June. Here 
