THE TURRET SPIDER. 
15 
habit of these spiders isto shun the society of man, they are not 
to be considered dangerous — a conclusion which science and 
experience alike have demonstrated to be correct. 
The Turret Spiders feed upon caterpillars and such other in¬ 
sects as fall into their pits, or as they can catch in brief wander¬ 
ings abroad. Snakes sometimes attempt to drag these spiders 
from their holes. In one case a black snake was observed with 
its head thrust fully twelve inches down the shaft, tempted, 
doubtless, by the spider herself, or by such small creatures as 
had fallen down the shaft. To guard against being thus taken, 
as it were, in a cul-de sac, the larger spiders (for the smaller 
ones are comparatively safe from attack by reason of the small 
size of their pits) often construct a side tunnel at the base of 
the main shaft, and parallel to it, in which they may lie in wait 
for their prey, in freedom from the peril of falling victims them¬ 
selves. 
A New Mineral. 
The chances for the discovery of a new species in any branch 
of natural science by the average student are not numerous, 
and fewer, probably in the domain of mineralogy than in any 
one of the other lines. 
So it is of especial interest to the members of Section F of 
the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences to learn that a 
new mineral has recently been discovered in the town of Graf¬ 
ton, N. H., and has been named graftonite. This mineral 
was first found on the south side of Melvin Mountain about 
five miles west of the village of Grafton. It occurred irregu¬ 
larly through a coarse crystalline mass of quartz and feldspar, a 
pegmatite vein, the masses of the latter mineral being in some 
instances fully four feet long. With the graftonite were found 
also beryl, tourmaline, garnet, muscovite, and biotite, all in 
rather large crystalline masses. More intimately associated 
with this new mineral, however, was the mineral triphylite, the 
