MET WITH AT SEA. 275 



the flocculent web, as on an autumnal day in Eng- 

 land. The ship was then sixty miles distant from 

 the land. Vast numbers of a small spider, about 

 one-tenth of an inch in length, and of a dusky red 

 colour, were attached to the webs. Many thou- 

 sands of them were on the ship. The little aero- 

 naut, as soon as it arrived on board, was very 

 active, running about, sometimes letting itself fall, 

 and then reascending the same thread ; sometimes 

 employing itself in making a small and very irregu- 

 lar mesh in the corners between the ropes. It 

 moved with facility on the surface of the water. Its 

 stock of thread appeared to be inexhaustible ; and 

 this I have observed to be the case with our own 

 little gossamer, and, like them, when they were 

 suspended by a single thread, the slightest breath 

 of air would bear them out of sight. On other 

 occasions, when they had been placed, or had 

 crawled on some little eminence, they would send 

 forth a thread, and sail away in a lateral course, 

 with a rapidity which was quite unaccountable. 

 Some spiders, however, have the power of darting 

 through the air without the help of any thread. 

 This I have noticed more than once, and it has 

 been observed by others. M. Virey, in his " Bul- 

 letin des sciences naturelles," thinks, that by means 

 of a rapid vibration of their feet, they walk the air. 

 In the case of a spider, placed upon a stick, fixed 

 in the centre of a basin-full of water, a thread is 



