AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
173 
had got within ten miles of Gross cape when the wind 
rose into a storm. The waves were making, fast, when 
the paddles were resorted to, which, together with the 
wind, forced us under the shelter of Gross point just in 
time. We feared for our company, but keeping on, and now 
in calmer water upon the river St. Mary, and at three 
o’clock, I bade, perhaps, a final farewell to Lake Superior, 
and its billowy and changeful surface; its moon-light scene- 
ry; its broken and barren shores; its Grand Sables; its Pic- 
tured rocks; its islands, and its solitude. I felt grateful 
for the protection I had experienced, and for the safety of 
all concerned; and gratified at having been made able to 
feed the hungry, and to assist in planning measures which 
we hope may prove in future a source of supplies, in part, 
at least, for the miserable and starving beings among whom 
we have been. 
At five o’clock arrived at the Sault de St. Marie. It 
was our intention to go down the rapids, but our voyageurs 
dissuaded us from it, assuring us that the canoe was too 
deep, and that none of the crew knew the way well enough 
to avoid, with certainty, the rocks which are no where 
more than a few feet beneath the surface of the foam of the 
rapids. 
We entered by the way of the race which had been cut 
by the soldiers to let in the water for a saw mill, which has 
been destroyed by fire since we left here; and at five, p. m. 
had the gratification of being once more in a place where 
the rights of hospitality had been extended to us; and al- 
though it is only on the threshold of civilized life, so great 
was the change from solitude to it, that I felt on seeing 
these few log houses covered with bark, and the fort, 
and the faces of the inhabitants, as if I had entered a popu- 
lous town. We were scarcely in our quarters before the 
landlady, Mrs. H , announced the deaths of John 
Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and handed us the papers 
which teem with the feelings, and reflections, and honours 
of the people, on an occasion so unexampled! 
In an hour after our arrival, the Governor and Mr. Hol- 
liday were seen careering it over the rapids, and flying by 
us. They were surprised on seeing us, having passed us 
at Grand island, and not expecting our arrival, at least, un- 
til to-morrow. Tour to the Lakes. 
HOW SPIDERS EFFECT THEIR AERIAL EXCURSIONS. 
By John Blackwell, Esq. F. L. S. 
Although it is well known that spiders sometimes as- 
cend into the atmosphere through the instrumentality of 
fine lines of a viscous gummy matter, which proceed from 
X x 
the papillae situated at the extremity of the abdomen, yet 
the manner in which these aerial jonrneys are effected 
still remains involved in obscurity, and considerable diver- 
sity of opinion exists as to the particular species of spider 
by which they are undertaken. This deficiency leaves 
open a wide field for speculation; and accordingly we find, 
that natural historians have ascribed this interesting occur- 
rence to several distinct causes, — such as the agency of 
winds, evaporation, and electricity; the exercise of pecu- 
liar physical powers, with which the spiders that produce 
gossamer have been supposed to be endowed; and the ex- 
treme levity of the webs of these insects, which are repre- 
sented by some writers on the subject to be of less specific 
gravity than atmosphere air : but that each of these hypo- 
theses is unfounded, and in direct opposition to facts, will 
be rendered evident by the following observations and ex- 
periments, from which a satisfactory solution of the diffi- 
culty, it is hoped, will be obtained. 
That gossamer, w T hich usually abounds most in the months 
of September and October, is perceived to ascend into the 
atmosphere only in serene bright weather, is, I believe, 
generally allowed: it is also admitted, the gossamer in the 
air is invariably preceded by gossamer on the ground. 
These, as will appear in the sequel, are circumstances of 
much importance in the present investigation; every me- 
thod of accounting for the ascent of the webs and spiders, 
however plausible, which does not imply their concurrence, 
being necessarily erroneous. 
But to proceed to my own researches: — A little before 
noon on the 1st of October, 1826, which was a remarkably 
calm sunny day, the thermometer in the shade ranging 
from 55°-5 to 64°, I observed that the fields and hedges in 
the neighbourhood of Manchester were covered over, by 
the united labours of an immense multitude of spiders, with 
a profusion of fine shining lines, intersecting one another 
at every angle, and forming a confused kind of net-work. 
So extremely numerous were these slender filaments, that in 
walking across a small pasture my feet and ankles were 
thickly coated with them: it was evident, however, not- 
withstanding their great abundance, that they must have 
been produced in a very short space of time, as early in 
the morning they were not sufficiently conspicuous to at- 
tract my notice; and on the 30th of September they could 
not have existed at all; for on my referring to my me- 
teorological journal, I find that a strong gale from the 
south prevailed during the greater part of that day. 
A circumstance so extraordinary could not fail to excite 
curiosity; but what more particularly arrested my atten- 
tion was the ascent of an amazing quantity of webs of an 
irregular complicated structure, resembling ravelled silk of 
the finest quality and clearest white. They were of various 
