114 EYE SPY 
handed down in history, and were always a mys- 
tery. Even the ancient Pliny records a " rain of 
wool," a phenomenon which, in a greater or less 
degree, is to be seen by every walker in the coun- 
try during the late summer and autumn months 
the annual picnic of the " ballooning spiders," 
whose peculiar aeronautic methods are shown in 
my illustration. 
Gilbert White, in his " History of Selborne," 
written over a hundred years ago, gives a 
most graphic account of one of these cobweb 
showers : 
" On September the 2ist, 1741," he says, " being 
then on a visit, and intent on field diversions, I 
rose before daybreak. When I came into the en- 
closures, I found the stubbles and clover grounds 
matted all over with a thick coat of cobweb, in 
the meshes of which a copious and heavy dew 
hung so plentifully that the whole face of the 
country seemed as it were covered with two or 
three setting-nets drawn one over another. When 
the dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were so 
blinded and hoodwinked that they could not pro- 
ceed, but were obliged to lie down and scrape off 
the encumbrances from their faces with their 
fore feet, so that finding my sport interrupted, I 
returned home musing on the oddness of the oc- 
currence. . . . About nine o'clock an appearance 
very unusual began to demand my attention a 
