I 



The Telegraph-Wire 263 



wheel supporting the lime-threads and it warns 

 the Epeira by its vibrations. A special thread 

 is here superfluous. 



The other snarers, on the contrary, who occupy 

 a distant retreat by day, cannot do without 

 a private wire that keeps them in permanent 

 communication with the deserted web. All of 

 them have one, in point of fact, but only when 

 age comes, age prone to rest and to long slum- 

 bers. In their youth, the Epeirse, who are then 

 very wide-awake, know nothing of the art of 

 telegraphy. Besides, their web, a short-lived 

 work whereof hardly a trace remains on the 

 morrow, does not allow of this kind of industry. 

 It is no use going to the expense of a signalling- 

 apparatus for a ruined snare wherein nothing 

 can now be caught. Only the old Spiders, 

 meditating or dozing in their green tent, are 

 warned from afar, by telegraph, of what takes 

 place on the web. 



To save herself from keeping a close watch 

 that would degenerate into drudgery and to 

 remain alive to events even when resting, with 

 her back turned on the net, the ambushed 

 Spider always has her foot upon the telegraph- 



