198 THE UNIVERSE. 



The silk of our spiders is always of a dirty gray, but 

 in tropical regions the colour varies to a certain extent. 

 Some of these insects produce different coloured threads, 

 which they interlace with admiral3le skill. Some are red, 

 others yellow, others again black, and with all these they 

 form a three-coloured fabric. 



Industrial art has vainly attempted to utilize the silk of 

 the spider. With us its little power of resistance has never 

 allowed us to use it to any profit. Entomologists, how- 

 ever, relate that Louis XIV. had a dress made of it for 

 himself, but the want of strength in this newly invented 

 cloth soon disgusted him with his phantasy. But it ap- 

 pears that the Avebs of some American species jDOssess a 

 sufticient power of resistance to admit of being employed 

 for this purpose. Al. d'(3rbigny had a pair of trousers 

 made of spider-webs, which lasted a very long time. 



Scnne yeai's ago, on a magnificent autumn morning, I 

 was Avalking in the vast meadows Avhich border the Seine ; 

 the sky Avas azure, and the sun was shining splendidly. 

 What was my astonishment at seeing that the entire 

 surface of the freshly mown grass was covered with a net- 

 work of fabulous delicacy ! 



The rays of light, gleaming obliquely upon this immense 

 Avhitc veil, made the whole surface of it iridescent, and 

 the harmonious regularity of this sheet of silk, which ex- 

 tended further than the eye could see, Avas only inter- 

 rupted by the rents made by the grazing cattle, the limbs 

 t)f Avhich, covered Avith silky flakes, bore Avitness to their 

 theft. Finally, here and there some of these Avhite fila- 

 ments, borne by the breeze over the surface of the 

 meadoAvs, floated in the atmosphere and fell upon our 

 dresses. 



I had come by accident upon a phenomenon in all its 



