BRITISH SPIDERS. 



87 



CASE raise the spider, and enable it to float to considerable distances. 



VII. ^ 



These threads must not be confounded with gossamer, which is 



composed of numerous lines or webs, brought together by gentle 



currents of air, and adhering by the viscid properties of the web. 



There is nothing remarkable in this ; but the circumstance that 



Xj'sticus cristatus (twice magnified). 



Xysticus audax (twice magnified). 



excites our surprise is the vast quantity of gossamer that may be 

 seen on a warm misty morning in autumn, covering every bush 

 and tuft of grass for miles. It is only in autumn that it occurs, 

 when the young broods of spiders are in full numbers, and it 

 shows not only their great numbers but the rapidity of their 

 manufacture. This, however, we already knew, for it is matter 

 of common observation that a large web of the garden spider 

 may be swept away and replaced in a few hours. In fact, there is 

 not anything more industrious in the matter than in the Great 

 Eastern ploughing its way through the ocean, and paying out a 

 deep-sea cable as she goes. The whole industry of the spider 

 consists in its walking from one point of attachment of the web 

 to another, no doubt guiding the line with her claws as she goes, 

 and of course to make a large geometrical web there must be a 

 good deal of walking j but there is no industry in spinning the 

 web. It is manufactured and payed out by nature as fast as it is 

 wanted. 



