I20 On the Origin of the GoJ]fatner. 



this phenomenon as the evaporation of plants condenfed 

 during the cool days of harveft by the air, and converted into 

 threads like thofe which can be drawn from refinous juices ; 

 others, as the produftion of a kind of fpider, on account of its 

 fimilarity to the threads of common fpiders * : and M. D. C. 

 Pereboom has lately difcovercd a kind of beetle furnifhed 

 with a veficle on its back, from the hinder part of which, on 

 both fides, proceed two threads that extend over the extre- 

 mity of the body, and end in a double thread, fometimes 

 ten or more ells in length ; and this thread is fuppofed to be 

 what is commonly called the Goflamer. 



After many years experience and obfervations made almoft 

 daily when this phenomenon appeared, I flatter myfelf that 



* In the country, during autumn, certain threads are fecn hanging from 

 the trees, or extended on the buflies, and even the grafs, which, when 

 agitated by the wind, detach themfelves from the branches, aretranfportcd 

 to others, and are joined or feparated at the pieafure of the breeze. People 

 in walking often find their faces, hair, and clothes, covered with them. 

 They are generally called the threads of St. Martin (filets de St. Martbi), 

 becaufe it is about St. Martin's day that they appear in the greateft abun- 

 dance. When the moifture of the atmofphere and the dew attach them- 

 felves to thefe threads and become congealed, fo that the threads appear 

 thicker and whiter, the peafants call them the hair of the Virgin IVTary 

 (chevcux de la Vierge Marie). Having one day afked them the caufe of 

 this produ£lion, they unanimoufly replied, and without variation, that it 

 was the vapours of the earth, which at that feafon are thicker and denfer. 

 I had no great confidence in this opinion : hut I foon learned the real 

 truth; for, being in a field overfpread with heath in the time of autumn, 

 I obferved that s-lmoft all the heath-bufhes were covered with fpiders 

 webs, and when thefe were opened I found inclofed in each a fpider. 

 Thefe fpiders were fmall, of a red colour, and marked with fpots; their 

 feet were fliort, and the head was laige in propoiiion to the belly. Such 

 fpiders webs are found among the low {hrubs that grow near the earth, 

 at the bottom of ftalks of corn which have been left itanding by the reap- 

 ers, and in the bufties. When the ivind is ftrong it breaks thefe webs, 

 carries away a part of them, which are fcatrered over the ground and the 

 trees, and hence come the threads of St. .Martin. Hiieticma, Amfterdam 

 »:-3j P- l^<i' Edit. 



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