INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. 
385 
float in fearful sublimity in the boundless sky, — marvelled 
at their mighty structures, and wandered wearily from 
planet to sun, and from star to star, till we have been lost 
in the exceeding majesty of the scene, it is refreshing to the 
exhausted spirit to descend from the celestial excursion, 
and join the ranks of the botanist, or the entomologist, and 
to feel assured that the goodness of the Deity has not 
been exhausted on those unmeasured worlds, but that his 
beneficence is extended to the lowest of his creatures. 
Amoxig the various phsenomena presented to the research 
of the entomologist, there does not seem one more curious 
and interesting than the ascent of the wingless Spider into 
the atmosphere, — a fact unquestionable and unquestioned. 
It is one, however, recorded without a solitary attempt to- 
ward its solution. I have consulted authorities in vain, 
among others, Linnaeus, Shaw, and Donovan. 
The gossamer-web was formerly believed to be a tissue 
of " scorched dew hence Spenser — 
The fine net which oft we woven see 
Of scorched dew. 
Even Dr Hooke said that the gossamer only " much re- 
sembled a cobweb,"" and believed that " the great white 
clouds that appear all the summer time might be of the 
same substance."" 
Swammerdam and De Geer ridiculed the idea of the 
flight of spiders. 
Dr Hulse first observed the property which particular 
spiders possess, of propelling their threads into the air. 
Dr Martin Lister discovered that spiders were wafted 
aloft on this airy vehicle ; and in fine weather (in Septem- 
ber) he found, more than once, a spider which, from its 
flight, he called " The Bird." Afterwards, he noticed that 
the insect, by elevating the anus, darted a thread from 
thence, and thus rose into the atmosphere. 
VOL. v. B b 
