266 BERMUDA. 



from these spiders' bags, and its use was attempted in the 

 manufacture of several articles. M. Bon has noticed only 

 two kinds of silk-spiders, and these he has distinguished 

 from each other as having either long or short legs, the 

 last variety producing the finest quality of raw silk. 

 M. Bon asserts that the silk formed by these insects is 

 ei[uaUy beautiful, strong, and glossy with that formed by 

 the Bomhyx. The spider spins minute fibres firom fine 

 papillse, or smaU nipples, placed in the hinder part of its 

 body. These papillae serve the office of so many wire- 

 drawing irons, to form and mould a viscous liquor, which, 

 after being drawn through them, dries on exposure to the 

 air, and forms the silk. An objection that has been urged 

 by M. Reaumur against the rearing of spiders, was the 

 small quantity, as well as deficient quality of the silk they 

 produce. The advantages of the culture of silk from the 

 silkworm, when compared with its production firom spiders, 

 are so prodigious, and at the same time so evident, that to 

 prove the futility of M. Bon's scheme needs not the aid of 

 exaggeration. 



In the Mediterranean Sea is found the largest and most 

 remarkable species of Limax — the Pinna, its sheU being 

 often found two feet long. In common with the mussel, it 

 has the power of spinning a viscid matter irom its body, 

 in the manner of the spider and caterpillar, and of pro- 

 ducing slender filaments, scarcely inferior in fineness and 

 beauty to the single filament of the comparatively minute 

 silkworm. 



Several beautiful manufactures are wrought with these 

 threads at Palermo. They are in many places the chief 

 object of the fishery, and the silk is found to be excellent. 

 The produce of a considerable number of pinna is required 



