COCOON LIFE AND BABYHOOD. 



227 



On opening the door one morning I was surprised to find every object 

 upon the table books, manuscript, pamphlets, bottles, inkstand including 

 the box in which the mother spider was contained, literally cov- 

 ered with a mass of sheeted spinningwork, which lay over the 

 tops of the objects on the table like a thin silken cloth. It 

 showed the inequalities of those objects, thus presenting a good 

 miniature model of the immense cantonment of a modern trav- 

 eling circus company. This remarkable structure concentrated upon the 

 tallest object on the table, a large box standing at one corner. To this 



A Can- 

 tonment 

 and 

 Tower. 



PIG. 254. Bridge lines, canopies, and turret spun by a brood of young Citigrade spiders (Ctenus). 



point, evidently, the migrating brood had drifted, and here a strange sight 

 was presented. \JFavored by the breeze, one adventurous spider had ap- 

 parently found its output line borne upward until it caught upon the ceil- 

 ing. Up it mounted, and in a little while was followed by others, each 

 spiderling dragging after it a similar thread, until at last a tower like 

 structure was formed, the base of which is represented in the drawing, 

 Fig. 254, reaching entirely to the ceiling of the room, a distance of eight 

 or ten feet. At several places along this were lines which issued towards 



