tion of the mosquitoes, are its sole inhabitants.

As was said, the first spider was found on Folly Island on the 19th of
August, 1863: it was also the last there seen. During the summer of
1864, many were found on Long Island (so called); and when, in the
spring of 1865, our regiment was encamped on James Island near Wappoo
Creek, it was toward Long Island that all my attention, so far as
concerned spiders, was directed.

But first, as a bit of collateral history, and to show how easily and
how far one may go astray when one of the links in the chain of argument
is only an _inference_, let me relate that, while riding over James
Island, I observed upon trees and bushes numbers of small brown bags,
from half an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, pear-shaped, and
suspended by strong silken cords. The bags themselves were made of a
finer silk so closely woven as to resemble brown paper, and, when
opened, were found to contain a mass of loose silk filled with young
spiders to the number of five hundred or more. In certain localities,
especially in a swampy field just outside the first line of Rebel works,
they were quite abundant. I had soon collected about four hundred of
them, which, by a moderate estimate, contained _two hundred thousand
little spiders_,--quite enough, I thought, with which to commence
operations. But one hot day in June I placed them all on a tray in the
sun. I was called away, and on my return found my one fifth of a million
young spiders dead,--baked to death.

Prior to this catastrophe, however, I had become convinced that these
were not the spiders I sought. Indeed, my only reasons for thinking they
might be were, first, the abundance of these cocoons in a locality so
near Long Island; and, second, my own great desire that they should
prove the spiders I wanted. The young spiders, it is true, did not at
all resemble their supposed progenitors, as to either shape, or color,
or markings; yet all of these evidently changed during growth, and would
not of themselves disprove the relationship.

One day in April, however, a cocoon was found in a tree on James Island,
of a very different appearance from the others. It was of loose
texture, and, instead of being pear-shaped, was hemispherical in form,
and attached by its flat surface to the lower side of a leaf. This also
contained young spiders, a little larger and a little brighter in color
than the others, but really bearing no resemblance to th