426 Mr. Fairholme on the Escape of Spiders. 



I placed liim on my finger, and with a microscope I ob- 

 served the valves in the abdomen to open, by several distinct 

 apertures, from each of which a fine thread of gummy liquid 

 issued, all of which threads became united into one strong 

 cord, which continued flowing until (carried by a gentle 

 breeze to leeward) it became attached to the branch of a tree, 

 about twenty yards distant. 



It was highly interesting to observe the proceedings of the 

 insect during the operation. He had previously, by simply 

 bringing the lower extremity of his body in contact with my 

 finger, attached the gummy thread firmly to it; and while it 

 was flowing, which was distinctly visible by occasional en- 

 largements in the thread (probably occasioned by dusty par- 

 ticles adhering to it as it flowed) he remained nearly still, 

 except when making an occasional trial with one claw, to dis- 

 cover if it was yet fixed to any object. These trials strongly 

 reminded me of those of a rope-dancer, while the assistants 

 are screwing up his rope to the necessary degree of tension. 



At length he seemed to have found the desired resistance, 

 though I was not then aware of the object to which the line 

 had become fixed. But a most singular operation now com- 

 menced, and was performed with extraordinary celerity. For 

 by a rapid movement of his hooked claws, he " hauled in the 

 slack of the rope" tightening it to the necessary degree; and 

 when he had thus collected a confused mass of tangled 

 thread, he swallovced it, and again fixing the tightened end of 

 the cord to my finger, he lost no time in proceeding along the 

 line towards the desired point. I now brought the cobweb in 

 contact with a fixed object, near which I stood, and follow- 

 ing the traveller (who was rocked by the breeze in a manner 

 he would not have been if left to his own ingenuity, for in 

 fixing the cord I had not attended ,with sufficient care to the 

 degree of tightness to which he had himself arranged it), I saw 

 him reach in safety the branch of a tree, fully twenty yards 

 distant, to which 1 now found the projected thread had become 

 fixed. 



From the above observations, it is therefore clear that in 

 some instances spiders are endowed with this remarkable 

 power of escape; but whether this instinct is confined to those 

 species which, from their abode near water, would appear 

 most to require it, my observatif)ns do not enable me to de- 

 cide. But it seems to me nearly certain that the gossamer 

 which is seen floating in long threads in the summer air, is 

 of the same nature as these projected cobwebs ; and also that 

 those innumerable and minute threads, which are often seen 

 to cover the ploughed fields, and the hedges, in a horizontal 



