THE GEOMETRICAL SNARE 121 



expends the spider's substance ; but all that remains, 

 the tattered lines, the tiny insects, again return to the 

 architect ; even the foundation-lines are searched that 

 nothing goes waste. 



I was at first very much surprised to think that a 

 spider's stomach could be so capacious as to contain 

 the complete snare. In this, however, I was much 

 mistaken ; for I found that a large, complete snare, 

 eleven inches in diameter, was of such delicate sub- 

 stance and compressible into so small a bulk that 

 when rolled into a ball between the fingers, it formed 

 a compact mass but little larger than an ordinary pin- 

 head. A spider will often swallow entire a fly of 

 much greater dimensions than its own compact 

 snare. 



I look on the circular snare of the Epeira as almost 

 as beautiful an example of mathematical accuracy in 

 the life of organic beings as the exquisite structure of 

 the honeycomb. But how much more wonderful does 

 it all seem when we picture the web as a potential 

 fabric, first woven into an inimitable harmony to lure 

 to death thousands of living creatures, then, tattered 

 and torn in the tragedy, to be again received into the 

 maw of its voracious host, to be repurified in the 

 strange economy of a spider's structure, to emerge 

 again from the spinning-wheel in fine transparent 

 filaments, to be woven again into the same lovely 

 texture, and to repeat day after day the same eternal 

 drama that fills the mind with such enthusiasm and 

 admiration. 



Throughout this chapter I have spoken repeatedly 

 of the perfection of the snare. And this is true in a 

 general sense. But 3. closQ observation of nature 



