244 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



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

 the length of the desk next to the wall, and covered tlie Ijottoni 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 slij) ends with 

 Tuesday morning, August 23d. My paper, 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 Aveb, 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 

 ernor of the State, was 

 en me by Mr. 

 The Hon. me from Wash 

 Proctor newspaper ac 



„ "°. ^ letter the follow 

 Testi- 

 mony. ^^'^^ ^^^^ 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, ^^i«p>,,„^^ 

 ard,' I again visited the. 'J^lfmmM^ 

 ture, and found that the ^^ ~~'^ -t— -r-=" I ^=r-~"-^' mouse had been raised so 

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

 from the floor, as I as t""**;- (F™m a sketch by Hon. ^.^^.^.^i^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 inches from the floor, and 

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

 tail. This statement, although written hurriedly and amid considerable 

 confusion, you may use as you think proper." 





four and a half inches 

 night a meddlesome boy 

 dark and accidentally 

 mouse fell. Next morn- 

 collection, the web was 

 regret tliat 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 

 perhaps 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- 

 the editor of the 'Stand- 

 scene of the singular cap- 



