BALLOONING SPIDERS 113 



the dew— who has not seen it, and thought of the 

 agile, long - legged proprietor somewhere lurking 

 near by? And yet for ages, and until a compara- 

 tively recent date, this cobweb, either trailing 

 lightly in the breeze or spread in the grass, was a 

 mystery as to its source, and was believed to con- 

 sist of dew burned by the sun. But the spider 

 has hoodwinked even the wise heads in many 

 other ways, and even to-day is an unsolved mys- 

 tery to many of us. Yes, we all know the spider- 

 web and the spider, but have we tried to solve 

 the puzzle which he spreads before us by every 

 path, in our window-blind, our office, our bedroom, 

 or even, it may be, in mid -ocean. Here, for in- 

 stance, a puzzled nautical friend propounds the 

 question : " How do those tiny spiders get on my 

 yacht when I am twenty miles at sea.? They 

 could not have hatched simultaneously all over 

 the ship, and I find them by the dozens all over 

 the sails and rigging, and even on my clothing." 

 I have heard of a little girl who ran in -doors to 

 her mother in great excitement to tell her that it 

 was "snowin' pider-webs," a picturesque and true 

 statement as far as it goes, but which tells but 

 half the story, for each of the falling webs held a 

 pretty secret. What that secret was my yachts- 

 man can readily guess, for the two half -stories 

 taken together complete the tale. Various ac- 

 counts of these gossamer showers have been 



