NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 255 



September 6th. 



Mr. Lea, President, in the Chair. 



Twenty-nine members present. 



A paper was presented for publication in the Proceedings entitled 

 u Catalogue of the Invertebrate Fossils of the Cretaceous Formation of 

 the United States, by Win. M. Gabb," and was referred to a Com- 

 mittee. 



Mr. Lesley read the following extracts from a letter he had received 

 from Mr. Edward A. Spring, Eagleswood, N. J., July 26th, 1859 : 



I was over on the South Amboy shore with a friend, walking in a swampy 

 wood, where a dyke was made, some three feet wide, when we discovered in 

 the middle of this ditch a large black spider making very queer motions for a 

 spider, and on examination it proved that he had caught a fish. 



He was biting the fish, just on the forward side of the dorsal fin with a 

 deadly gripe, and the poor fish was swimming round and round slowly, or 

 twisting its body as if in pain. The head of its black enemy was sometimes 

 almost pulled under water, but never entirely, for the fish did not seem to 

 have enough strength, but moved its fins as if exhausted, and often rested. 

 At last it swam under a floating leaf at the shore, and appeared to be trying, 

 by going under that, to scrape off the spider, but without effect. They then 

 got close to the bank, when suddenly the long black legs of the spider came 

 up out of the water where they had possibly been embracing the fish, (I have 

 seen spiders seize flies with all their legs at once) reached out behind and 

 fastened upon the irregularities of the side of the ditch. The spider then 

 commenced tugging to get his prize up the bank. My friend stayed to watch 

 them while I went to the nearest house for a wide mouthed bottle. During 

 the six or eight minutes that I was away, the spider had drawn the fish en- 

 tirely out of the water, when they had both fallen in again, the bank being 

 nearly perpendicular. There had been a great struggle and now on my re- 

 turn, the fish was already hoisted head first more than half his length out on 

 the land. The fish was very much exhausted, hardly making any movement, 

 and the spider had evidently gained the victory, and was slowly and steadily 

 tugging him up. He had not once quitted his hold during the quarter to half 

 an hour that we had watched them. He held, with his head toward the fish's 

 tail, and pulled him up at an angle of 45 by stepping backwards. How long 

 they had been there or how far they had come we cannot tell. We saw no 

 web anywhere about. 



The time would not permit a longer stay, so we reluctantly bottled the pair. 

 I thought I had missed dipping up the spider, and looked along the bank, but 

 on turning to the bottle he was there. The fish was swimming weakly at the 

 bottom of the water that I had dipped in, and the spider standing sentinel 

 over him on the surface, turning when he turned, and watching every motion. 

 We stopped the mouth of the bottle so that the spider could not escape, and 

 went to see the fine place of the late Mr. Stevens above on the hill. Return- 

 ing in about three hours, we found, to our disappointment, the spider dead at 

 the bottom, but the fish was alive. He lived for twenty-four hours. The 

 spider was f of an inch long, and weighed 14 grains ; the fish was 3^ inches 

 long and weighed 66 grains. 



September 20th. 

 Mr. Lea, President, in the Chair. 

 Thirty-one members present. 

 1859.] 19 



