THE INSTINCT OF SPIDERS 149 



deceive the spider's fine sense of touch ; it will not 

 hurry out to seize a capture, but violently shake 

 its snare to repel an enemy. How accurate, how 

 discriminating is this sense of touch ! A snare 

 extends from bank to bank at the brink of a cascade. 

 As the waters pour over the rocky ledge and splash 

 in the pool beneath, hundreds of little drops leap 

 up and strike against the snare. At every stroke 

 the fabric quivers, but the spider sits unmoved. The 

 slightest touch by a passing fly and it rushes out along 

 the quivering line. But the vibration of the drops of 

 water no more mislead it than do the tremors of the 

 wind. There can be few creatures that possess so 

 fine a tactile sense as the spiders that construct 

 geometrical snares. 



" The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine ! 

 Feels at each thread, and lives along the line." 



I have now concluded my remarks on the geo- 

 metrical spiders. I find that they are endowed with 

 acute senses in relation to the outer world. They see, 

 hear, taste, and have an exquisite sense of touch. But 

 their minds are an utter blank. They know nothing of 

 their lives. They are oblivious of all their subtle 

 skill. They lack the faintest glimmer of knowledge, 

 the flimsiest conception of the why and wherefore of 

 it all. They can no more reflect upon their past 

 nor retrace their thread of architecture than they can 

 conceive the nature of their toil. 



