ARANEID^ — TRUE SPIDERS. 345 



In Batavia, New York, on the evening of the 13th of 

 September, 1834, Hon. David E. Evans, assent of the Hol- 

 land Land Company, discovered in his wine-cellar a live 

 striped snake, about nine inches in length, suspended be- 

 tween two shelves, by the tail, by Spiders' web. From the 

 shelves being two feet apart, and the position of the web, 

 the witnesses were of opinion the snake could not have 

 fallen by accident into it, and thus have become inextricably 

 entangled, but that it had been actually captured, and drawn 

 up so that its head could not reach the shelf below by about 

 an inch, by Spiders, and of a species much smaller than the 

 common fly, three of which at night were seen feeding upon 

 it, while it was yet alive. 



Hon. S. Cumraings, first Judge of the Court of Common 

 Pleas in his count}^ and also Postmaster of Batavia, and Mr. 

 D. Lyman Beecher have described this phenomenon, and 

 given the names of quite a number of gentlemen who wit- 

 nessed it, and will testify to the accuracy of their accounts. 

 Says Mr. Cummings : " Upon a critical examination through 

 a magnifying glass, the following curious facts appeared. 

 The mouth of the snake was fast tied up, by a great number 

 of threads, wound around it so tight that he could not run 

 out his tongue. His tail was tied ir^ a knot, so as to leave 

 a small loop, or ring, through which the cord was fastened ; 

 and the end of the tail, above this loop, to the length of 

 something over half an inch, was lashed fast to the cord, to 

 keep it from slipping. As the.,snake hung, the length of the 

 cord, from his tail to the focus to which it was fastened, was 

 about six inches; and a little above the tail, there was ob- 

 served a round ball, about the size of a pea. Upon inspec- 

 tion, this appeared to be a green fly, around which the cord 

 had been wound as a windlass, with which the snake had 

 been hauled up ; and a great number of threads were 

 fastened to the cord above, and to the rolling side of this 

 ball to keep it from unwinding, and letting the snake down. 

 The cord, therefore, must have been extended from the focus 

 of this web to the shelf below where the snake was lying 

 when first captured; and being made fast to the loop in liis 

 tail, the fly was carried and fastened about midway to the 

 side of the cord. And then by rolling this fly over and over, 

 it wound the cord around it, both from above and below, un- 

 til the snake was raised to the proper height, and then was 

 fastened, as before mentioned. 



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