142 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



farther bank, where it clings by virtue of its own stickiness. 

 The spider climbs aloft again by the stouter rigging to find 

 that rocket apparatus has successfully thrown the rope to 

 the desired goal. 



How clever! but the word seems the wrong one when in 

 another month one goes out and sees the hop-bine bridging 

 similar heights in much the same manner and with as true an 

 instinct for direction. What does it all mean ? Darwin told 

 us a little ; much more than any one else. Doubtless very 

 pat explanations have been written. * The engineer,' so 

 they put it, * who throws the bridge across the Zambesi Falls 

 has a brain which works by reason. The spider which 

 weaves the two webs has, instead of brain, ganglionic centres 

 from which instinct emerges. The hop-bine has irritable 

 cells which respond to stimulus/ Doubtless the tale is true ; 

 and those to whom it gives satisfaction are welcome, if they 

 wish, to cease wondering. After all ' ganglionic centre ' is a 

 great and satisfying phrase, and is good anatomy. 



Indeed the production of silk, in what may be called the 

 manufacturing months of autumn, is vast. The silkworm is 

 only one of scores of species of insect and of spider which 

 produces silk of the finest quality ; it is indeed a singularly 

 complete example of all that is characteristic of the common 

 moths and butterflies. It is a sort of text-book example of 

 the type. Many children have kept silkworms and learnt to 

 appreciate the rest of insect life through them ; even Milton, 

 who was a child in these things, knew about the silkworms. 

 His Comus talked of men who loved 'to set to work millions 

 of spinning worms that in their green shops weave the 

 smooth-haired silk.' The worms flourish perfectly in Eng- 

 land for a certain period, and many people have tried to 

 start an English industry. But ' the third day comes a frost 

 a killing frost/ In England we have sudden visitations of 



