260 THE WOODLANDS. 



Wigan like a sheet, and in such quantities as to affect 

 the appearance of the atmosphere. On examination 

 it was found to contain small flies, some of which 

 were so diminutive as to require a magnifying glass to 

 render them perceptible. The substance so abundant 

 in quantity was the gossamer of the garden or field 

 spider, often met with in fine weather in the country, 

 and of which, according to Buffon, it would take 

 663,552 spiders to produce a single pound." 



A far more ancient shower is recorded by Pliny, for 

 he says : "In the year that L. Paulus and C. Marcellus 

 were consuls it rained wool about the castle Carissa, 

 near to which a year after T. Annius Milo was slain." 



The question of spider poison, and of the power of 

 spiders to eject venom into the wounds which it 

 causes, need not be entered upon in detail here. The 

 fact is undoubted that the falces terminate in a hard, 

 sharp, curved fang, with a slit or fissure near the point. 

 That a secretory gland exists near its base with a 

 channel from it to the orifice. And that a poisonous 

 fluid can be emitted from the fang, at least a fluid 

 which renders insensible the small insects which are 

 wounded by it, although probably not sufficiently 

 poisonous to incommode higher animals. 



Long-legged, spider-like animals, called Harvestmen 

 or Harvest-spiders, appear to live equally well about 

 houses or in the most lonely forests. They seem to 

 be most active in the early morning or evening, pre- 

 ferring twilight to the glare of the sun. Unlike the 

 true spiders, they have only one pair of eyes, but their 

 legs are extravagantly long. They are carnivorous, 

 feeding on small insects, with a partiality for aphides. 



