132 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



Hesitating and perplexed, it works backwards and 

 forwards from the centre to the circumference in the 

 struggle to lay down its viscid spiral. The slack radii 

 make it continually reverse where there should be no 

 reverse. Aimlessly it gropes with its fore leg, seeking 

 for the spiral to guide its measurements. It either 

 touches nothing or, if it finds a filament, an attachment 

 follows, usually in the wrong place. The difficulties 

 of the spider increase at every turn, and greater con- 

 fusion follows in its architecture. But it persists in its 

 one duty, the only duty it can then perform, the 

 construction of its viscid spiral. At length it ceases; 

 its duty done. Satisfied that all is well, it seats itself 

 at the centre of the snare surrounded by the hopeless 

 tangle of its lines. 



How blind is the instinct that impels a spider in this 

 fruitless course ! All the snare needs is a few bridges 

 to stiffen the radii and allow the spider to pass over. 

 But the spider neither sees it nor knows it. It under- 

 stands nothing of its architecture. Each step must 

 follow the preceding step. Each act has its determined 

 sequence. The spider works unknowingly, driven by 

 the clear, cold logic of events. At the obedience of 

 an unswerving- force it strugfofles in its unconscious 

 duty. Its instinct tells it that when at work on its 

 viscid spiral it must continue till its viscid spiral is 

 complete. This instinct the spider implicitly obeys, 

 thoug^h it leads it to confusion. 



I will mention a few more experiments to indicate 

 the blind instinct by which the spider is controlled. 

 I found a snare of Araneus najitictis in which six 

 turns of the viscid spiral were complete. The spider 

 was busy continuing the work. It was monotonously 



