348 ARANEIDiE — TRUE SPIDERS. 



tant, especially at Wigan. The fields and roads were 

 covered with a light filmy substance, which, by many per- 

 sons, was mistaken for cotton ; although they might have 

 been convinced of their error, as staple cotton does not ex- 

 ceed a few inches in length, while the filaments seen in such 

 incredible quantities extended as many yards. In walking 

 in the fields the shoes were completely covered with it, and 

 its floating fibres came in contact with the face in all direc- 

 tions. Every tree, lamp-post, or other projecting body had 

 arrested a portion of it. It profusely descended at Wigan 

 like a sleet, and in such quantities as to affect the appear- 

 ance of the atmosphere. On examination it was found to 

 contain small flies, some of which were so diminutive as to 

 require a magnifying glass to render them perceptible. The 

 substance so abundant in quantity, was the gossamer of the 

 garden, or field Spider, often met with in fine weather in 

 the country, and of which, according to Buffon, it would 

 take 663,552 Spiders to produce a single pound. "^ 



*'In the yeare that L. Paulus and C. Marcellus were 

 Consuls,'! says Pliny, "it rained wool about the castle Ca- 

 rissa, neare to which a yeare after, T. Annius Milo was 

 slaine."^ This rain of wool was doubtless a shower of gos- 

 samer. 



It was an old and strange notion that the gossamer webs 

 were composed of dew burned by the sun. Says Spenser : 



Moi'e subtle web Arachne cannot spin ; 



Nor the fine nets, which oft we woven see, 



Of scorched dew, do not in th' ayre more lightly flee.' 



Thomson also : 



How still the breeze! save what the filmy threads 

 Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain.* 



And Quarles : 



And now autumnal deivs were seen 

 To cobweb evei'y green. ^ 



Likewise Blackmore : 



1 Hone's Eo. Day Bk., p 1832. 



2 Nat. ILst., ii. 54. Holl. Trans., p. 27. F. 

 ' Faerie Queene, B. 2, c. xii. s. 77. 



* Seasons: Summer, 1. 1209. 

 » Emblems, p. 375. 



