340 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 
face of the country covered with a thick coat of cobweb 
drenched with dew, as if two or three setting-nets had 
been drawn one over the other. When his dogs at- 
tempted to hunt, their eyes were so blinded and hood- 
winked that they were obliged to lie down and scrape 
themselves. This appearance was followed by a most 
lovely day. About nine A. M. a shower of these webs 
(formed not of single floating threads, but of perfect 
flakes, some near an inch broad, and five or six long,) 
was observed falling from very elevated regions, which 
continued without interruption during the whole of the 
day ;—and they fell with a velocity which showed that they 
were considerably heavier than the atmosphere. When 
the most elevated station in the country where this was 
observed was ascended, the webs were still to be seen 
descending from above, and twinkling like stars in the 
sun, so as to draw the attention of the most incurious. 
The flakes of the web on this occasion hung so thick 
upon the hedges and trees, that baskets-full might have 
been collected. No one doubts, he observes, but that 
these webs are the production of small spiders, which 
swarm in the fields in fine weather in autumn, and have 
a power of shooting out webs from their tails, so as to 
render themselves buoyant and lighter than the air?. 
In Germany these flights of gossamer appear so con- 
stantly in autumn, that they are there metaphorically 
called “ Der fliegender Sommer” (the flying or departing 
summer); and authors speak of the web as often hang- 
ing in flakes like wool on every hedge and bush through- 
out extensive districts. 
Here we may inquire—Why is the ground in these 
* Nat, Hist. i, 325—, 
