CHAPTER XI. 



ESTSECT ENGINEERING— BKIDGE BUILDING AND 

 BALLOONING SPIDERS. 



October is the golden month of the American calen- 

 dar. There is au indescribable mellowness in the 

 atmosphere, as though the year had centered all the 

 luscious fruitage of her ripening upon this halcyon 

 season. The air is warm, but crisp with ozone. At 

 times the sky is clear as in midwintSr ; again the land- 

 scape is wrapped in a soft haze through which distant 

 objects loom with indistinct outlines like the remem- 

 bered objects of one's dream. All healthful life in 

 N"ature finds a joy in ver3r being, none the less because 

 there hangs upon all things a prophetic tone of coming 

 dissolution. The melancholy days ai'e not yet quite 

 " come," but are coming, and are near. The leaves are 

 adding to their summer green the first tints of russet, 

 yello^v, and scarlet that shall by-and-by enfold them in 

 their dying glory. The insect-world is still full of life ; 

 but already in many species motherhood has paid to 

 posterity the last penalty of Nature, and in many others 

 the reservoirs of life are running low. But the waning 

 and the waxing of life go on together. Parents are 



dying, but children are gaining in vigor. Multitudes 



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