198 TENANTS OF AN OLD FARM. 



buoyancy the weight of a spider, precisely as the buoy- 

 ancy of a balloon overcomes the weight of the ajronaut 

 and his car, and permits them to ascend into and float 

 upon the air. At that moment, wiiich the spider re- 

 cognizes by the upward traction of the threads, she 

 leaps up and is carried off in the direction of the wind. 

 Immediately after mounting she turns around, grasps 

 her thread-balloon with her feet, spins out a little basket 

 or mesh of connecting lines which her feet clasp, and 

 then emits from her spinnerets another pencil of deli- 

 cate threads. She now rides on a tiny net, hung back 

 downward between the two long, floating filaments, 

 and is carried before the wind 'where it listeth,' until 

 the balloon strikes and entangles upon bush, tree, or 

 other elevated object, when she dismounts and sets up 

 housekeeping for herself." 



"Have the spiders any control of their own descent ?" 

 asked Abby, " or are they wholly dependent upon the 

 action of the wind ?" 



" I should have answered, before this morning, that 

 they are entirely at the mercy of the wind. But I 

 have now seen that which changes my opinion. One 

 of the balloonists whom I carefully observed to-day, 

 secured its own descent by gradually drawing in the 

 floating lines until they gathered in a minute white 

 pellet above the mandibles. As the lines shortened 

 the buoyancy decreased, the weight of the spider yielded 

 to gravitation, until gradually she was drawn to the 

 ground and alighted on the grass. If this observation 

 shall be confirmed as a truly typical one, we must concede 



