ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Brpartmriits 



: S. Cra 



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Vol. XXI X. 



MARCH. 1918 



THE MOST REMARKABLE FISHING- 

 NET KNOWN— THE SPIDER'S 

 WEB NET 



By E. W. Gudger, Professor of Biology, 

 Stale Normal College, Greensboro, N. ('. 



LOUIS BECKE, author of many interesting 

 books mi the life and customs of the South 

 Sea islanders and on the habits of the 

 fauna found therein, in one of these hooks. 

 'Neath Austral Skies (London. 1909), tells the 

 following interesting story: He says that many 

 years ago he was discussing the customs, hahits. 

 and manner of life of the inhabitants of western 

 Polynesia with Dr. J. S. Kubary, a German nat- 

 uralist and traveler of high standing. They 

 were at the time traversing a path through the 

 mountains of Ponape, one of the islands of the 

 Caroline Archipelago, lying northwest of New 

 Guinea. 



Ft was early in the morning .and spiders' webs 

 with the dew on them were found everywhere. 

 They were very large, so much so that occasion- 

 ally one of them would obstruct the path of the 

 travelers, and would have to be broken through 

 with a stiek. The size, strength, and beauty of 

 these webs were SO extraordinary as to attract 

 Becke's attention, and he spoke to Kubary of 

 them. However, the German assured him that 

 these were nothing compared to those which he 

 had heard were to be found in the vicinity of 

 Astrolabe Bay on the northeastern coast of that 

 strange island-continent. Papua or New Guinea. 



Kubary told his companion that he had read 

 in either a letter or a publication by the dis- 

 tinguished Russian naturalist. Baron Nicolai 

 Miklucho-Maclay, the statement that the moun- 

 tain-dwelling tribes about Astrolabe Bav used 



similar spider-web nets for catching fish in their 

 mountain streams. 



Xow Miklucho-Maclay was a scientist of 

 high standing, especially in ichthyology, a trav- 

 eler of wide acquaintance among the savage can- 

 nibals of New Guinea and the South Sea 

 Islands, and had for some time resided among 

 the tribes inhabiting the shores of Astrolabe 

 Bay. 



Whether or not the Baron had actually seen 

 the natives use the large spider-webs for catch- 

 ing fish. Kubary could not say; but he certainly 

 believed that the former had grounds for mak- 

 ing the statement. Kubary's own notion was 

 that the natives somehow or other were able to 

 remove the nets whole and uninjured from the 

 branches of the trees between which they had 

 been spun, and having fastened them with 

 proper supports across the narrow streams, 

 drove the fish into them. 



Becke next relates that years later, in a 

 conversation with Sir John Robertson, Premier 

 of Xew South Wales and father-in-law of Mik- 

 lucho-Maclay. he spoke of the death of the lat- 

 ter from fever in New Guinea, and expressed 

 great regret that the loss of the collections, 

 journals, etc.. of the naturalist probably made it 

 impossible ever to trace down the spider-web 

 fish-net story. Sir John, however, laughed at 

 the story and expressed his belief that his son 

 in-law was simply playing on the credulity of 

 the German. I have had careful search made 

 of all the works available in the Library of Con- 

 gress of both Kubary .and Miklucho-Maclay. but 

 with barren results so far as finding anything 

 confirmatory of this interesting story. 



However, from another source we now come 

 to a most important confirmation of the spider- 

 web fish-net story. During the past summer 

 while at work in the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History. New York City, on the Bibliogra- 

 phy of Fishes, under the editorship of Dr. 

 Bashford Dean and Dr. Charles R. Eastman. \ 

 examined a considerable number of books of 

 travel to get fish references. Among these was 

 one entitled Two Years Among New Guinea 

 Cannibals: a Naturalist's Sojourn Among the 

 Aborigines of Unexplored New Guinea (Lon- 

 don. 1906). The author is Mr. E. A. Pratt, a 

 natural history collector of standing, and Gill 

 Memorialist. 1891. of the Royal Geographical 

 Society of Great Britain. Mr. Pratt spent two 

 years in New Guinea, mainly among the aborig- 

 ines in the vicinity of Yule Bay on the south- 

 east coast where he collected insects and birds- 

 of-paradise. This book gives an interesting 



