28 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



whom it was shown seemed to think that they had 

 been hitherto deceived in the account of the 

 shawls of India being made from the wool of a 

 goat, and that this silk, if sent home, could be made 

 into shawls equal to any manufactured in India. 



Many of the larvae of the European moths afford 

 a very strong silk, and it is said, that a manufacture 

 of silk from the cocoons of the emperor moth 

 was at one time established in Germany. There 

 is no doubt, however, that silk might be collected 

 in abundance from many native silkworms in 

 America. Cocoons have been described eight 

 inches long, made of grey silk, which the inha- 

 bitants of Chilpancingo, Tixtala, and other places 

 in South America, manufacture into stockings 

 and handkerchiefs. Humboldt also observed similar 

 nests in the provinces of Mechoacan, and the 

 mountains of Santa Rosa; they were of dense 

 tissue, resembling Chinese paper, of a brilliant 

 whiteness, and formed of distinct and separate 

 layers. The interior layers, which are the thin- 

 nest, and of extraordinary transparency, were used 

 by the ancient Mexicans as writing tablets. 



