THE GEOMETRICAL SNARE 117 



I made some attempt to investigate the industry of 

 the architect ; to estimate the amount of work per- 

 formed and the time taken to complete it. Spanning 

 a deep reflecting pool I found the fragments of a snare. 

 Only the external frame, composed of strong founda- 

 tion-lines, remained. The more fragile texture in the 

 centre had vanished. It was evening. Soon the 

 Epeira would descend to its ruin, for the time of work 

 was drawing near. I thought I would wait for the 

 reconstruction to commence and attempt to estimate 

 the length of line emitted and the distance travelled 

 by the spider during the complete construction of its 

 snare. I waded out into the pool, found the diameter 

 of the framework to measure twenty-two inches, and 

 awaited the commencement of the work. 



As the sun sank low in the sky, the Epeira felt the 

 call to work. It moved out along the foundation-lines, 

 first to explore the framework, then to extend the radii 

 through the snare. I followed all the movements of 

 the spider from its first attachment to the completion 

 of the web, but I did not take the foundation-lines into 

 my reckoning, as these were a permanent structure 

 laid down many days before. With the exception of 

 these main foundation-lines, I estimated that, from the 

 commencement to the completion of the snare, the 

 spider emitted 122 feet of filament, made 699 attach- 

 ments and travelled over a distance of 178 feet. Yet 

 the whole was woven into a circular web 22 inches in 

 diameter and occupied the spider only 36 minutes. 

 This seemed to me an excellent instance of untiring 

 industry as displayed by the more humble of organic 

 beings. 



It has been a subject of discussion how the silken 



