The Life of Spiders 



sufficient to buoy up the spider. It then lets go its hold with 

 its feet and is carried off by the wind. 



That these ballooning spiders are carried long distances in 

 this way is shown by the fact that they have been met by ships at 

 sea hundreds of miles from land. And the showers of gossamer 

 which are occasionally observed are produced by ballooning spiders. 



It often happens that spiders attempt to fly when the wind 

 is too strong and the threads they emit are not carried up but are 

 merely blown against some nearby object. I have known in- 



Fig. 2os. A SEA OF GOSSAMER 



stances in which large fields have been covered with a gauze of 

 silk in this way. Members of a Country Club have reported 

 to me that the grass of their links was so thickly covered with silk 

 of spiders that the shoes and trousers of the players were greatly 

 soiled by it. 



Sometimes sheets of silk are formed by the massing together 

 of the threads of myriads of spiders in such situations that the 

 sheets are finally torn away by the wind and later are rained down 

 far from the place of origin. This is the explanation of the showers 

 of gossamer which are occasionally recorded. 



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