GOSSAMEK. 127 



suspension, long and strong, on which is to hang the ingenious 

 fabric of their toils. This shooting of the spider's lines, and 

 that associate " wonder," the origin of Gossamer, may as well 

 form our not unseasonable theme. Autumn indeed is more 

 especially the period when 



" Gossamer floats, or stretched from blade to blade, 

 The wavy net-work whitens all the field ;" 



but October, if we are permitted to enjoy its mellow riches, we 

 shall find so much more fertile than the present month in 

 insect subjects, that we are glad to take this of Gossamer, 

 now, from the comparatively few, instead of choosing it, then, 

 from amongst the many. 



The apparent flight of the wingless spider from tree to tree, 

 across water, and even through the upper regions of air, has 

 been almost as great a puzzle to naturalists, as the Fly's walk 

 against gravity. It was no doubt soon discovered, that this 

 flight in seeming, was no more a real one than that of an 

 aeronaut in a balloon, or than those of the fool-hardy adven- 

 turers, such as from the times of Hogarth to our own, have 

 now and then made rope-borne transits from steeple to steeple. 



That the spider travelled by a line was apparent enough to 

 nice observers, but the marvel long was, how such lengthy 

 lines could be shot forth, as, when attached accidentally to 

 some fixed body, serve to provide the insect traveller with 

 a cable bridge to cross from plant to plant, or from tree to 

 tree ; or when floating loosely, serve equally to promote the 



