ARGONAUT AND GEOMETER. 



217 



asked the Mistress. "There must be an iimneuse 

 number of them ! IIow large are they ?" 



"To begin with your first question, the beads are 

 very small. Let me draw a few strings for you. Here 

 are four sections (Fig. 75, I, II, III, IV) that will give 

 you some idea 

 of their relative 

 size and ap- 

 pearance. For 

 the actual size 

 we must use a 

 pocket-lens or a 

 microsc op e ; 

 but, perhaps, I 

 can show it 

 thus: This last 

 line (iv, Fig. 75) 

 I will represent 

 here (a. Fig. 

 75) in natural 



length. The divisions on the line iv, marked by little 

 points, correspond with those on the line a." 



" And all those beads are crowded inside that little 

 line ?" 



" Yes ; but what they lack in size they make up in 

 number. I once numbered the beads on a web of 

 ordinary size by actually counting those upon a given 

 section, and multiplying the result by the number of 

 sections. I estimated that there were over 140,000, and 

 in some snares the number must be much larger. It 



-AKACUNE's I'EAKLS — VISCID 

 BEADS. 



