APPENDICES. 267 



to make only one pair of stockings. The delicacy of tHs 

 singular thread is such that a pair of stockings made of it 

 can be easily contained in a snuff-box of ordinary size. 

 Stockings and gloves of this production, however thin, are 

 too warm for common wear, but are esteemed useful in 

 gouty and rheumatic cases. This great warmth of the 

 byssus, like the similar quality in silk, results probably 

 from both being imperfect conductors of heat as well. as 

 electricity. 



At the close of the thirteenth century, the celebrated 

 traveller Marco Polo gave to the world a narrative of his 

 wanderings, wherein is contained a particular and interest- 

 ing account of Cambalu, the royal city of China. In 

 evidence of the abundance of silk in which it traded, — 

 " No fewer," he informs us, " than 1,000 carriages and 

 pack-horses, loaded with raw silk, make their daily entry 

 into the city; and silks of various textures are manu- 

 factured to an immense extent." He describes the whole 

 country of China to be filled with great, rich, and crowded 

 cities, thronged with manufacturers of silk and other valu- 

 able merchandise. 



The climate of Bermuda is so congenial to the nature 

 of silkworms, and the mulberry-trees so fertile, I know 

 of no reason why a large quantity of silk should not be 

 produced. 



It may not be uninteresting to the general reader to call 

 attention to the examination of the various transforma- 

 tions of the silkworm, or Bombyx, and to the study of its 

 nature and habits. 



Silkworms proceed from eggs, which are deposited 

 during the summer by a greyish kind of moth, of the 

 genus Phalcence. These eggs are about equal in size to a 



