Lee | ieee hie ee a 
ENGINEERING SKILL OF SPIDERS. 209 
show a continuous power to adapt the spinningwork to its environment. 
This seems to be done almost unconsciously. If this view be true the lack 
of mathematical symmetry may prove the presence of a higher skill rather 
than the reverse. . 
The query was started in my mind whether spiders dwelling along the 
seashore or in wind swept heights might not have developed some special 
habit of resisting the extraordinary danger to their snares by some extraor- 
dinary protection. But I have not found evidence favoring such a sug- 
gestion. I haye only one example that looks at all in that direction. 
Fic. 201. Orbweb (A) among rocks, braced against sea wind. B, braces; C, C, connecting line 
or trapline to the den, D. 
Among the rocks around the lighthouse at Annisquam on Ipswich Bay, 
Massachusetts, I found a large orb of Epeira sclopetaria spun within a 
: few feet of the surf, and stayed in the peculiar manner which is repre- 
sented in Fig. 201. The snare was in a sort of gully or canal between the 
granite boulders on the shore, through which the wind blew 
- Sea strongly as through a funnel. Across this little gully and exposed 
Beane to the full force and suction of the wind the orbweb was built 
and stayed upon the side of one of the rocks, as at A. Farther 
along, a few lines were stretched across the opening, fastened to rocks on 
either side as at B, and upon this a line, CC, was suspended, attached at one 
