68 LECTURE Y. 



different is the case of the silk-wcrm ! If she 

 were furnished with expanding wings, like other 

 moths, she would fly away and become useless. 

 Her wings, however, are so short, that although 

 she flutters them a little, she never attempts to 

 quit her home which has been provided for her, 

 but lays her eggs and dies so short is her ex- 

 istence as a perfect insect. These eggs, when 

 hatched, produce very small grubs, which must 

 have mulberry leaves provided for them to feed 

 upon. When they have arrived at maturity 

 they leave off eating, and begin to spin their 

 valuable silk, forming it into a cocoon, or cover- 

 ing, which they may be heard doing night and 

 day, for three days, when it is finished. The 

 silk which covers the cocoon will extend for 

 many hundred yards. In the silk countries 

 that is, in places where the silk-worms are most 

 cultivated these cocoons are thrown into a 

 cauldron of hot water ; the ends of the silk un- 

 fasten, when 50 or 60 of them are caught and 

 wound off into hanks, or skeins, like worsted, all 

 together, and sold by weight to silk merchants. 

 The grubs which spin these cocoons, of course, 

 are killed ; but a certain number are reserved 

 for breeding, and these lay many eggs. 



