450 il//'. Black wall's Observations to ascertain 



sition to facts, will be rendered evident by the following obser- 

 vations and experiments, from which a satisfactory solution of 

 the difficulty, it is hoped, will be obtained. 



That gossamer, which usually abounds most in the months of 

 September and October, is perceived to ascend into the atmo- 

 sphere only in serene bright weather, is, I believe, generally 

 allowed : it is also admitted, that gossamer in the air is invari- 

 ably preceded by gossamer on the ground. These, as Avill appear 

 in the sequel, are circumstances of much importance in the pre- 

 sent investigation ; every method of accounting for the ascent 

 of the w^ebs and spiders, however plausible, which does not im- 

 ply their concurrence, being necessarily erroneous. 



But to proceed to my own researches :— A little before noon 

 on the 1st of October 1826, which was a remarkably calm sunny 

 day, the thermometer in the shade ranging from 55° 5 to 64°, I 

 observed that the fields and hedges in the neighbourhood of 

 Manchester were covered over, by the united labours of an im- 

 mense multitude of spiders, with a profusion of fine shining lines, 

 intersecting one another at every angle, and forming a confused 

 kind of net- work. So extremely numerous were these slender 

 filaments, that in walking across a small pasture my feet and 

 ankles were thickly coated with them : it was evident, however, 

 notwithstanding their great abundance, that they must have been 

 produced in a very short space of time, as early in the morning 

 they were not sufficiently conspicuous to attract my notice ; and 

 on the 30th of September they could not have existed at all ; for 

 on referring to my meteorological journal, I find that a strong 

 gale from the south prevailed during the greater part of that 

 day. 



A circumstance so extraordinary could not fail to excite 

 curiosity ; but what more particularly arrested my attention 

 was the ascent of an amazing quantity of webs of an irregular 



complicated 



