436 
NOTES TO THE 
is its dull colour. I tried it with several dyes both aqueous and 
alcoholic ; the latter succeeded best, but not quite so well as an 
oily stain made by soaking alkanet root in linseed oil, the oily 
matter of which was removed by washing with soapsuds. Some 
spider silk, it would appear, has naturally a beautiful colour, 
such as that which Dr. Wilder describes as discovered by him 
at Folly Island in Charleston harbour in 1863. He wound, in 
an hour and a quarter, 150 yards of yellow silk from the body 
of one spider. One of his brother officers wound 3,484 yards, 
or nearly two miles of silk from thirty spiders. This thread 
was capable of sustaining from 54 to 107 grains. He describes 
the silk as yellow and white with a lustre as brilliant as gold or 
silver. I once obtained a cocoon of an English spider which 
appeared to have been spun with gold thread. Dr. Wilder 
found great difficulties in rearing the spiders, from their tendency 
to prey on each other, which, I fear, will render it next to im- 
possible to turn this beautiful spidei-silk to practical account." 
Horses^ p. 191.— I am certain that a great many racehorses are 
made very savage by being shut up in stalls away from other 
horses ; a horse is by nature a gregarious animal, and it is pain and 
misery to him to be shut up alone. Horses have very quick 
hearing, and at night timid horses are often kept awake by rats 
moving about. Eats, therefore, should always be exterminated 
in stables. Goats are often kept in stables ; as I am told that 
goats will face fire. Should the stable take fire, the goats will 
give the horses the lead out of it, whereas if there were no goat 
the horses would neither walk nor be led out. It is said that to a 
horse's eye everything is magnified, and this is the reason why man 
has such power over him ; to a horse a man possibly appears to 
be of a gigantic size. The molar teeth of horses fastened to- 
gether with cement form very ornamental mosaic pavement for 
summer-houses or entrances to hall-doors. They may be also cut 
and polished to make ornamental tables for the drawing-room. 
Nothing is so difficult to stuff well as a horse's head. There 
is an old man who supplies gentles to the Zoological Gardens, 
Eegent's Park : the attendants call him the " Gentle-Man." The 
head of a black horse was once sent to this man to be stuffed, 
and he confessed to Mr. Bartlett that he had made such a hideous 
object of it, that " when he went out of a morning he was obliged 
to cover it over, lest when he came home at night he should 
be frightened at it." 
People who wish to have relics kept of favourite horses 
should have their ears preserved ; they make nice holders 
for spills; the hoofs also make good inkstands; and the tails 
mounted on a stick are an excellent thing to kill flies. 
