THE SPIDER'S SPAN 105 



tablet upon the stone bridge-tower the spider gets 

 no credit. 



Day after day and week after week we might 

 have seen, travelling back and forth against the 

 sky, a wheel-shaped messenger reeling off its tiny 

 wire. Night and day it was busy, each trip add- 

 ing one more strand to the growing cable which 

 was to support the great substructure below. 

 And what was this travelling wheel called? 

 " The carrier," or " traveller," if I remember right- 

 ly. Why this obviously intentional slight and 

 discourtesy when every field and wood and copse 

 in the country indeed, on the globe showed its 

 living example, and bore its myriadfold witness 

 that the "spider" was the only legitimate and 

 proper designation ? 



In the other most notable suspension-bridge, at 

 Niagara, the time-honored methods of the spider 

 were further and conspicuously recognized, but 

 here again without any courteous engraven ac- 

 knowledgment on the tablet of fame, so far as I 

 have learned. 



A kite was flown from the American shore, and 

 reeled out so as to fall upon the Canadian side, 

 and this initial strand was drawn across, and sub- 

 sequently strengthened by the travelling reel. 



The ends of the added wires were firmly se- 

 cured at their anchorage, and the completed cable 

 at length re-enforced by guy-ropes. 



