STRENGTH OF WEBS AXD POWER OF SPIDERS. 237 



The observers were unfortunately unable to await the issue of the mat- 

 ter, and therefore caught the combatants in the bottle, partly filled with 

 water. The fish swam languidly at the bottom of the vessel, and the 

 spider stood sentinel on the surface, turning when the fish turned, 

 and watching every motion. The bottle was set aside and visited 

 after an interval of three hours. The spider was then found 

 dead at the bottom of the jar, but the fish was alive and lived twenty-four 

 hours afterward. The spider was three-fourths of an inch long and weighed 

 fourteen grains ; the fish was three and one-fourth inches long and weighed 

 sixty-six grains. The spider was probably bruised by the catching. The 

 spider referred to may have been an example of Lycosa lenta or L. fati- 

 fera, or more probably Dolomedes tenebrosus, all of which grow to great size 

 along streams of water. rs^^-^^.-* -^ ^=^ j :&-** I have seen very large 

 examples of D. tenebro ^^v sus along the rocks of 



the Thousand Islands in N^v^/(4^< *^ e St. Lawrence River, and 



upon various streams in the ^p vicinity of Philadelphia. 



One of the most remarkable records of the physical and me- 



chanical powers of spiders is made in Silliman's Journal. 1 



The account is authen A ticated by the names and state- 

 A Spide men { s o f a number of gentlemen resident in the vicinity 



of the occurrence, Bata V) via, New York. One evening Hon. 

 a Snake. ^ 



David E. Evans found / in his wine cellar a live striped 

 snake, nine inches long, suspended V by the tail in a spider's web be- 

 tween two shelves. The snake tf hung so that its head could not 

 reach the shelf below it, by about ^L an inch. The shelves were about 

 two feet apart, and the lower one ^^$ was just below the bottom of a cel- 

 lar window, through which the FIG. 220. A snake probably passed into it. 

 From the upper shelf there hung snak f f n ~ a web in the shape of an inverted 



rL tangled in 



cone, eight or ten inches in diame a spider's ter at the top, and concentrated to 

 a focus about six or eight inches web ' from the under side of this shelf. 

 From this focus there was a strong cord made of the multiplied threads of 

 the spider's web, apparently as large as sewing silk, and by this cord the snake 

 was suspended. A rude sketch of the serpent suspended in the web was 

 made by an eye witness, and is exactly reproduced at Fig. 220. A close 

 examination showed that the snake's mouth was entirely closed by a num- 

 ber of threads wound around it. Its tail was tied in a knot so as to leave a 

 small loop or ring, through which the cord was fastened, as seen in the fig- 

 ure. The end of the tail above (cephalad of) this loop, to the length of 

 half an inch, was lashed fast to the cord to keep it from slipping. As the 

 snake hung, the length of the cord from its tail to the focus to which it 

 was fastened was about six inches. A little above the tail was a round 

 ball about the size of a pea, which upon inspection appeared to be a green 



1 Aim-rk'un Journal of Science and Arts. XXVII.. is: 55, page 307. <<j. 



