Objervations sapihe Garden Spider 2a 
. year before i ds company with fome of my friends, atid which 
had appeared to us equally wonderful. We were walking 
-in the gardens of a country-feat, much neglected for feveral 
* years, where we faw an alley of horfe-beeches, the branches 
of which left a paffage of fcarcely five or fix fect, barred up, 
as it were, by a multitude of fpiders’ webs in a vertical po- 
_ fition. As we began to enquire how the fpiders had been 
~ able to convey their threads from one fide of the alley to the 
other through fo many leaves and branches, one of the com-_ 
pany faid that the threads, in ali probability, had been floated 
to the other fide by the wind, and that they had been caught 
, and.retained by the oppofite branches. The problem feemed 
thus refolved, and the converfation turned upon fome other 
Fubje&. The fact, however, which Aad taken place in my 
_ chamber, where the air was in a ftate of perfe& tranquillity, 
_clearly convinced me that the threads of thefe infe&ts had 
not béen tranfported by the wind; and that they muft have 
_ fome dire& method of conveying them from one place to 
another. 
I was then induced to fuppofe that thefe fpiders were 
themfelyes acquainted with fome method of projecting their 
. c threads, from the point where they are ftationed, to another 
»_ at which they with to arrive. In confequence of this idea, I 
__ refolyed to make fome experiments. I removed, by means of 
_a feather, the finall fpider from the middle of its web ; and 
. to be fure that no floating thread adhered to it, I moved 
another feather feveral times around that on which the 
:. _fpider was placed. I then gave it a gentle fhake, which made 
a the infect defeend feven or eight inches, extending its legs 
. _and fpinning. It then remained *ftationary in a otteonead 
fituation, having all its legs folded up on its belly, where it 
y fad applied its thread 5 fo that it feemed to be fufpended by 
she middle of its body. I faw it from time to time make 
Reed a turn, very fpeedily, fometimes to the right and fome- 
., times to the left, and this movement was perfeétly {ponta- 
neous ; ; for there was no agitation in the air or the feather, 
om Vou.ll, ny ee which 
