ON AERONAUTIC SPIDERS. 259 
fine, glossy lines, intersecting one another at every 
angle, and forming a confused kind of network. 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 evi- 
dent, however, notwithstanding their great abund- 
ance, 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 structure, re- 
sembling ravelled silk of the finest quality and clearest 
white. They were of various shapes and dimensions, 
some of the longest measuring upwards of five feet 
in length, and several inches in breadth in the widest 
part ; while others were almost as broad as long, pre- 
senting an area of a few square inches only. These 
webs, it was quickly perceived, were not formed in 
the air, as is generally believed, but at the earth’s 
surface. The lines of which they were composed, 
being brought into contact by the mechanical action 
of gentle airs, adhered together, till by continual ad- 
ditions they were accumulated into flakes or masses 
$2 
