274 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



vessel covered in the same way with innumerable webs of spiders, while 

 sailing during the monlli of March along the eastern coast of South 

 America. His ship was more tlian two hundred miles from land and 

 about four hundred miles south of the equator. The wind at the time, ac- 

 cording to his recollection, was blowing from the westward ; that is, from 

 tl^e continent. Captain Dodge, at my recjuest, communicated the facts 

 in writing, the incident having been impressed upon his memory by the 

 strangeness of seeing such creatures so far out at sea. " The spiders 

 seemed like little elongated balls, with a sort of umljrella canopy above 

 them. They settled upon the sails and riggings and, finally, disappeared 

 as they came." ' 



The purpose of such a remarkable habit as these facts exhibit is, 



doul)tles.s, to secure tlie distribution of species througliout wide 



IS n u- ,.^,gJQjjg^ 'pj,^^ buoyant fihunents of spider gossamer serve the 



tiny arachnid the same good office that is rendered the dandelion 



and thistle seed by the starry rays of down surrounding them. 



VIII. 



The ballooning habit of spiders gives a complete explanation of a nat- 

 ural phenomenon which has attracted the attention of men from an early 



period, and which has been variously 

 alluded to in prose and poetical writ- 

 ings, viz., Showers of Gossamer. 



One who walks the open fields in 

 the latter part of September or in tlie 

 soft bright days of October, which 

 is the most delightful period of our 

 Firi. 280. A floccuient thread of gossamer, with American year, will notice great quan- 



small flies entangled. . ■^^ . •,• in i 



titles of spider silk trailing and float- 

 ing from the stalks of weeds and grasses, and indeed from all elevated 

 objects. In the early morning, when the dew dej^osited upon these fila- 

 ments ])etrays their presence, one will be surprised at the vast 

 „, amount visible. Further on in the day he will observe quantities 



of this threaded spinningwork sailing through the air. (Fig. 280.) 

 A great excess of these floating tufts and filaments constitutes what is com-' 

 monly known as a gossamer shower. Doubtless Pliny alluded to such a 

 phenomenon in the statement which lie makes ' that " in the year that 

 L. Paulus and C. Marcellus were consuls it rained wool about the castle 

 Carissa, near to which, a year after, T. Annius Milo was slain." 



'Captain Dodge adds, very significantly : "Yon know tliat it i.s not nnnsual for liirds to 

 be blown out to sea. How much easier for a siiider, iirovido<l he bad tlii' means to keep 

 himself suspeniled in the air ! " 



2 Natural Ilistury, II., .')4. Holland's translatiim, page 1'7. 



