she
descended, came from her body. Rather than seize the insect itself, I
caught the thread and pulled. The spider was not moved, but the line
readily drew out, and, being wound upon my hands, seemed so strong that
I attached the end to a little quill, and, having placed the spider upon
the side of the tent, lay down on my couch and turned the quill between
my fingers at such a rate that in one minute six feet of silk were wound
upon it. At the end of an hour and a half I estimated, with due
allowance for stop-pages, that I had four hundred and fifty feet, or
_one hundred and fifty yards_, of the most brilliant and beautiful
golden silk I had ever seen.

During all this operation the spider had remained perfectly quiet, but
finally put an end to my proceedings by grasping the line with the tip
of one of her hind legs so that it snapped. I was tired, however, and
contented myself with the quantity already obtained, which now formed a
raised band of gold upon the quill. This specimen is now in my
possession, but has been removed from the quill to ascertain its weight,
which is one third of a grain.

It is worthy of notice, perhaps, that in all this was involved no new
_fact_, but only a happy deduction from one known ages ago; namely, that
a spider, when dropping, leaves her line attached, and so allows it to
be drawn from her body. Nothing was more natural than to simply reverse
the position of the fixed point, and, instead of letting the spider go
away from the end of her line, to take the end of her line away from
her. So natural, indeed, did it seem, that my gratification at having
been (as was then supposed) the first to do it was, on reflection, mixed
with surprise that no one had ever thought of it before, and I am very
glad to find that at least _four_ individuals have, within the last
century, pulled silk out of a spider, though of these only one, whose
researches I hope to make known, regarded the matter as anything more
than a curious experiment.

I had never before seen such a spider, nor even paid attention to any
geometrical species; though one large black and yellow variety is, or
used to be, common enough in our fields at the North. Neither had I ever
heard of such a method of obtaining silk. But though my first specimen
was not preserved, and a second was never seen on Folly Island, yet I
was so impressed with its size and brilliant colors, and especially with
the curious brushes of black hairs on its