244 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



is two feet ten inches. The spider's web extended perhaps three-fourths 

 the length of the desk next to the wall, and covered the bottom of the 

 desk to the width of about fifteen or sixteen inches. It was about three 

 feet long by sixteen inches wide. 



" You will observe that the narrative in the news slip ends with 

 Tuesday morning, August 23d. My pa^jer, which is a weekly, went to 

 press late Tuesday afternoon. The hoisting process continued all day 

 Tuesday, and employes about the stable say that by dark Tuesday night 



the mouse was four or 

 from the floor. Tuesday 

 entered the room in the 

 broke the web, and the 

 ing, according to my re 

 brushed away. I greatly 

 not allowed to complete his 

 captured and preserved, 

 when I found how the 

 The Hon. J. Proctor 

 tative in Congress from 

 the State, was 

 en me by Mr. 

 me from Wash 

 newspaper ac 

 letter the follow 

 was first called 

 or eleven o'clock 

 spider having made its 

 the tail of the mouse, of 

 weight, gradually hoisted 

 barely touch the floor 

 was still busily ' hoisting 

 was no less vigorously en 

 That afternoon, perhaps 

 pany with Mr. Hopper, 



ernor of 



The Hon. 

 Proctor 

 Knott's 

 Testi- 

 mony. 





four and a half inches 

 night a meddlesome boy 

 dark and accidentally 

 mouse fell. Next morn- 

 collection, the web w^as 

 regret that the spider was 

 work, and that he was not 

 I was greatly mortified 

 affair had terminated." 

 Knott, then a represen- 

 Kentucky, and later gov- 

 one of the references giv- 

 Hopper. He kindly wrote 

 ington, confirming the 

 count. I quote from his 

 ing : " When my attention 

 to the matter — about ten 

 in the forenoon — the 

 thread fast to the end of 

 2:)erhaps fifty times its own 

 its prey so that it could 

 with its fore paws, and 

 away,' while the mouse 

 deavoring to break loose, 

 near five o'clock, in com- 

 tlie editor of the 'Stand- 

 scene of the singular cap- 

 mouse had been raised so 



ard,' I again visited the. 



ture, and found that the^^^""^' "T— -r-^i-"=f 



that the top of its nose fig. 223. a mouse suspended by a was precisely four inches 



from the floor, as I as f^'"'- ^^''«"\^ ^'^^^''^ ^^ ^on. ^g^,^.^-^^^^ by actual meas- 



' Proctor Knott.) -^ 



urement with a pocket rule. The spider was still 



actively at work and the mouse still struggling. The next morning I 

 found the mouse dead, its nose about six inclies from the floor, and 

 the spider still at work. The thread was attachecl. to the end of the 

 tail. This statement, although written hurriedly and amid considerable 

 confusion, you may use as you tliink ]»roper." 



