326 NATURAL HISTORY 



hung in the trees and hedges so thick, 

 that a diligent person sent out might have 

 gathered baskets full. 



The remark that I shall make on these 

 cobweb-like appearances, called gossamei^ 

 is, that, strange and superstitious as the 

 notions about them were formerly, nobody 

 in these days doubts but that they are the 

 real 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 them- 

 selves buoyant, and lighter than air. But 

 why these apterous insects should that day 

 take such a wonderful aerial excursion, and 

 why their webs should at once become so 

 gross and material as to be considerably 

 more weighty than air, and to descend with 

 precipitation, is a matter beyond my skill. 

 If I might be allowed to hazard a supposi- 

 tion, I should imagine that those filmy 

 threads, when first shot, might be entang- 

 led in the rising dew, and so drawn up, 

 spiders and all, by a brisk evaporation into 

 the regions where clouds are formed : and 



