GOSSAMER WEBS. 129 



the little aeronaut can spring up into the air,* nor is it (says 

 Mr. Eennie) indispensable for her to rest upon a solid body 

 when producing a line, as she can do so while suspended in 

 the air by another. 



However incurious about their mode of formation, nobody 

 can have taken an early morning walk, especially towards 

 autumn, without having noticed these lines or webs of the 

 Gossamer Spider spread over hedge and field, a silken net-work, 

 studded with dew-drop diamonds. The prodigious extent of 

 these woven fabrics only corresponds with the surprising mul- 

 titude of their fabricators, of whom twenty or thirty will some- 

 times be found assembled upon one straw of stubble. It would 

 appear, on these occasions, as if a portion of the sky-lark's 

 soaring spirit, infused by his animating song, was at work 

 within these little creeping forms. All seem bent upon the 

 object of ascension, all are in progress towards the summit of 

 their respective stations, whether stubble- straw, blade of grass, 

 hedge-twig, or railing. Having climbed to the greatest height 

 their legs will carry them, they raise their abdomens to a 

 position nearly perpendicular, at the same time emitting a 

 portion of the glutinous substance which forms their webs; 

 this being acted on by the ascending current, is presently drawn 

 out into fine long lines, when the spiders, quitting their hold 

 of the objects whereon they stand, are carried aloft on their 

 journey towards the clouds. 



* See Insect Architecture. 

 VOL. I. I 



