ibited a species which, though not
absolutely new to science, was never seen nor heard of by Professor
Agassiz till the spring of 1865, and which is so narrowly circumscribed
in its geographical distribution that, so far as I can ascertain, it was
never observed by Hentz,--a Southern entomologist, who devoted himself
particularly to spiders,--and is met with only upon a few low, marshy
islands on the coast of South Carolina, and perhaps of other Southern
States. Its habits, too, are so interesting, and so different in many
respects from those recorded of other species, that the observer of
living creatures has here an abundant opportunity, not only for
increasing his own knowledge, but for enlarging the domain of science.
And this more especially in America; for while, in England, Blackwall
and others have been laboring for more than thirty years, spiders seem
to have received little attention on this side of the Atlantic.

We have now, moreover, in our observation of these insects, an
incentive of sovereign effect, namely, the hope of increasing our
national wealth; for to the practical man, to the manufacturer and the
mechanic, is offered a new silken material which far surpasses in beauty
and elegance that of the silk-worm, and which, however small in quantity
at present, demands some attention in view of the alarming decrease in
the silk crops of Europe. This material is obtained in a manner entirely
new,--not, as with the worm, by unwinding the cocoons, nor yet, as might
be suggested for the spider, by unravelling the web, but by _drawing_ or
_winding_ or _reeling directly from the body of the living insect_, even
as you would milk a cow, or, more aptly, as wire is pulled through a
wire-drawing machine.

To the admirer of the beautiful and perfect in nature is presented a
fibre of absolute smoothness, roundness, and finish, the colors of which
resemble, and in the sunlight even excel in brilliancy those of the two
precious metals, silver and gold; while the moralist who loves to
illustrate the workings of God's providence in bringing forth good out
of evil, by comparing the disgusting silk-worm with its beautiful and
useful product, may now enforce the lesson by the still more striking
contrast between this silk and the loathed and hated spider.

The statesman who, after a four years' war, sees few indications of a
better spirit on the part of the South, and is almost ready to exclaim,
"Can any good thing come ou