49$ TII1E GOSSAMER SPIDER. 



fell with a degree of velocity that showed they were 

 considerably heavier than the atmosphere. 



" On every side, as the observer turned his eyes, 

 he might behold a continual succession of fresh 

 flakes falling into his sight, and twinkling like stars, 

 as they turned their sides toward the sun. 



" How far this wonderful shower extended would 

 be difficult to say ; but we know that it reached 

 Bradley, Selborne, and Alrtsford, three places which 

 lie in a sort of triangle ; the shortest of whose sides 

 is about eight miles in extent. 



" At the second of those places there was a gen» 

 tleman (for whose veracity and intelligent turn of 

 Kiind I have the greatest veneration) who observed 

 it the moment he got abroad ; but concluded that, 

 as soon as he came upon the -hill above his house, 

 where he took his morning rides, he should be 

 higher than this meteor ; which, he imagined, 

 might have been blown, like thistle-down, from the 

 the common above. But, to his great astonish- 

 ment, when he rode to the most elevated part of 

 the down, 300 feet above the level of his fields, he 

 found the webs, in appearance, as much above him 

 as before ; still descending into sight in a constant 

 succession, and twinkling in the sun, so as to draw 

 the attention of the most incurious. 



" Neither before nor after this was any such fall 

 observed ; but on this day the flakes hung in the 

 trees and hedges so thick that a diligent person 

 sent out might have gathered baskets full. 



fC The remark that I shall make on these cobweb- 

 like appearances, called gossamer, is that, strange 



