NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



him as before. The flakes, adds Mr. White, hung in the 

 trees and hedges so thick that one might have gathered 

 baskets fuU. 



The origin of the gossamer thread has been explained 

 already. It needs only to add an explanation of the 

 shreds and flakes. In many, perhaps in most cases, a 

 nmnber of feints are made before ascent. A spider will 

 take due position and spin out a thread; but it fails to 

 mount aloft. Other unsuccessful attempts follow, each 

 producing a filament. These, while waving to and fro 

 in the eddying air, are often tangled together before 

 they are whipped off. Others again are miited in the 

 air after release. If, now, we think of the myriads of 

 young spiders abroad at this season, all movetl by the 

 impulse to flee their present site, and all spinning out 

 gossamer threads, we may imagine the enormous quan- 

 tity that would be set afloat within a brief time. These 

 masses of gauzy material are carried up by the warm 

 ascending currents of air; and, as the day grows cooler 

 and the currents begin to descend, the flakes fall, 

 often entangling in their fibrous meshes minute in- 

 sects. 



One suspects that there may be some physical condi- 

 tion peculiar to the British Isles that promotes the ac- 

 cumulation of the gossamer and its precipitation in 

 that region, and which does not prevail in America. 

 May it be that the gossamer material is generated on 

 the main-land of Europe, and, being carried seaward by 

 the winds, is deposited upon the English coasts? 



Closely related to the ballooning habit of spiders is 

 their ability to pass from point to point by means of 

 bridge-lines of varying length. Thus, also, are formed 

 the foundation-lines strung between various objects, 



194 



