INGENIOUS APPLICATION OF SILK. 21 



immovable. It is now able to draw the case 

 onwards a certain distance, after which it has only 

 to repeat the operation, and make other new 

 skeins in advance of these, to continue its onward 

 journey. Thus it arrives at the opposite edge of 

 the leaf, where it carefully adjusts its case to the 

 under side, fastening it with great ingenuity, and 

 drawing the threads tighter where the cone is 

 not properly balanced. In all these cases, silk is 

 the useful material by which the caterpillar se- 

 cures its nest, and provides for its own safety : 

 it is also a constant resource in case of danger, 

 or of accident, as the following anecdote will show. 

 A caterpillar of the goat- moth, being confined in a 

 smooth glass sugar-basin, managed to crawl up the 

 slippery sides and escape. This excited great sur- 

 prise in the naturalist (Rosel) who had imprisoned 

 the creature, and he therefore took occasion closely 

 to watch its proceedings when again placed in a 

 similar vessel. It was with surprise and admiration 

 that he now saw the caterpillar constructing a 

 silken ladder on the side of the glass ; the natural 

 gum of the silk being sufficient to secure it even to 



