THE SKATE 01 THE GIAKT WOOD SPIDER. 
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and subtle filament, often continuous from end to end. Every line is parallel, 
and the whole is a wonderful work of mathematical beauty and precision. The 
spider at length completes its viscid spiral. It anchors the end close to the 
centre, and the snare is finished. 
Fig. 1 Diagram of the parts of a Geometrical Snare. 
(а) Centre. (d) Radius. 
(б) Hub. (e) Viscid sjjiral. 
(c) Temporaiy spiral. (/) Foundation line. 
Such is the construction of the geometrical snare, a work of the most marvel 
ous texture. There are five successive stages in its architecture (see Fig. L). 
1. The foundation-lines. 
2. The radii. 
3. The hub. 
4. The temporary spiral. 
5. The viscid spiral.” 
Bearing these main principles in mind , let us now inspect the work of the 
Nephila; let us see how she varies from the common mode of workmanship, 
let us consider the additional lessons which I find she is able to teach. 
Armed with patieiice and a lantern, we move out into the jvmgle by night. 
We pass to some dark secluded spot chosen by the spider for her snare. Ear- 
lier m the morning we cut away the structure leaving a few foundation-lines 
in place. All day long the Nephila has been hanging to a broken thread. She 
will not think of work until some hours after the sun has set. We sit doivn with 
the light near the fragments of the old snare. We prepare for a long and 
patient wait. In all likelihood it will end in failure ; for the Nephila will often 
resent our interference ; if so, then she will scramble away into the foliage and 
seek for some more welcome nook elsewhere. But we wait in the hope that she 
will reconstruct her architecture in the place where we have cut it away. 
The weary hours drag on the lamp flickers at our side ; later the moon sheds a 
faint gleam of light, and we are filled with a sense of solitude and wonder, 
a veneration for the great unknown. We hear the chuckles and the hootings of 
the birds of night, the trumpet of the sambhar, the growl of the leopard, the 
roar of the king of Indian jungles that reverberates through the peaceful woods. 
We see the ghostly shapes of the forest trees, the deep dark spaces beneath their 
dripping boughs, and we feel the awe-inspuing influence of nature in the dark 
and lonely silence of the night. But we must watch and wait alone. None 
would join us m a midnight sitting merely to contemplate a spider at her work. 
