On North American Spiders. lil 
tobe such. He has laid it upon me to write the account, I having 
had advantage to make more full observations than himself. Forgive 
me that I do not conceal my name, and communicate this to you 
through a mediator. I do not state it as an hypothesis, but as a plain 
fact, which my own eyes have witnessed, and which every one’s sen- 
sesmay make him as certain of as of any thing else. Although 
these things appear to me thus certain, still I submit the whole to 
your better judgment and deeper insight. And I humbly beg to be 
pardoned for running the venture, though an utter stranger, of troub- 
ling you with so prolix an account of that, which I am altogether un- 
certain, whether you will esteem worthy of the time and pains of 
reading. If you think the observations childish, and beside the rules 
of decorum,—with greatness and goodness overlook it in a child. 
Pardon me, if I thought it might at least give you occasion to make 
better observations, such as should. be worthy of communicating to 
the learned world, respecting these wondrous animals, from whose 
glistening web so much of the wisdom of the Creator shines. 
“Tam, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant. 
“JonatrHan Epwarps.” 
“May it please your Honor,—There are some things I have hap- 
Pily seen of the wondrous way of the working of the spider. Al- 
though every thing belonging to this insect is admirable, there are 
some phenomena relating to them more particularly wonderful. Evy- 
ery body that is used to the country, knows their marching in the 
alr from one tree to another, sometimes at the distance of five or six 
8s. Nor can one go out in a dewy morning, at the latter end of 
August and the beginning of September, but he shall see multitudes 
ol webs, made visible by the dew that hangs on them, reaching from 
one tree, branch and shrub, to another: which webs are commonly 
"sit to be made in the night, because they appear only in the 
morning’; 
spiders ne 
then fallin 
time by a 
Pecially | 
paid lves may be very often seen travelling in the air, from 
a Stage to another amongst the trees, in a very unaccountable man- 
r. gees cee 
But I have often seen that, which is much more astonishing. 
