path by which
I was travelling; and on examination I found that all these locks
were Gossamer, some with the spider still with them, but generally
deserted. The spiders when they wanted to come down, finding there
was no descending current of air, or perhaps, as Mr. Murray says,
no electricity, determined to descend in _parachutes_; they
therefore had drawn up their cables hand over hand (as they may
often be seen to do when they wish to ascend their own lines)
until they accumulated a mass heavy enough to fall by its own
weight, and carry them along with it.

I have seen Gossamer in this form at other times before and since,
but in the likeness of a snow-shower I never saw it except on that
occasion, and, if I recollect aright, the same enormous shower of
Gossamer was observed to extend as far as Liverpool.

What induced these millions of spiders to go up at the same time,
of course I do not know, and can only suppose that they went up to
feed; but, as I have said previously, I never saw one of this
species preying upon anything. The idea that they go aloft to kill
the _Furia Infernalis_ is too fanciful to deserve credit. Who
knows whether the _Furia Infernalis_ is anything else than a
murderous Mrs. Harris--at all events, who has seen one, and what
was it like?

I suppose they are true sportsmen, and disdaining to take their
fish in nets, they, like thorough brothers of the angle, fish only
_with fine gut_.

Gilbert White noticed one of these showers of Gossamer, and as his
account is very interesting, I quote it. He says that on the 21st
of September, 1741, intent upon field diversions, he rose before
daybreak, but on going out he found the whole face of the country
covered with a thick coat of cobweb drenched with dew, as if two
or three setting-nets had been drawn one over the other. When his
dogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were blinded and hoodwinked, so
much that they were obliged to lie down and scrape themselves.
This appearance was followed by a most lovely day. About 9 A.M. a
shower of these webs (formed not of single threads, but of perfect
flakes, some near an inch broad and five or six long) was observed
falling from very elevated regions, which continued without
interruption during the whole of the day, and they fell with a
velocity which showed they were considerably heavier than the
atmosphere. When the most elevated station in the country where
this was observed was ascended, the webs were s