St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-09-13

ly changing their position all the while.
The silk they keep in a little bag,
which has five openings; it looks some
what like soft glue, but on looking at it
closely you find it is twisted into a
great many different coils, and by pull
ing, it can be drawn out into threads.
Have any of you been into a rope fac
tory, and seen how many little strands
it takes to make rope, and how each
strand or fiber must be perfect in order
to have the rope perfect +? Well, it is
just so with the spiders threads. Each
of those little openings has it's own
thread, and it takes all five of them
combined to make the very tiniest
thread we see in the web; and the
aigest and strongest threads are made
of these, doubled and trebled many
times.
A lady who boarded in Boston last
winter, told me how much interested
she became in spider who built his
web in the corner of her broad window
seat. When she discovered him, he
had only laid the foundations--the
strong beams which were to support the
whole structure. These, of course, were
very large, and he must run back and
forth on them great many times, each
time leaving an additional thread, be-
fore they grew large enough for use
Then he added some cross-bars, sc
marking it off something as we cut a
pie. Then running back to the centre
he began to go across from one bar to
another in a circular form. The dis
lance increasing, of course, each time
he went around. After he had got out
several lines, fearing evidently that
there would be too much weight in the
middle, and ii would sag or break, he
skipped space, and went out farther
towards the edge and began to weave
Afterwards he went back and filed in
this space. Wasn't that pretty good
foresight for such little black speck OF
a thing to show7 Almost as much as
you OF l would have, don't you think
If dust or dirt gets on the web, they
usually clean it by shaking it with their
paws; but this lady said her spider
would run out on the line to where il
was clOgged and with his paws gather
up all the tangled threads and dust,
roll it into Il ball, slip it back under his
belly and then seizing it with his hind
legs, drop it on the floor.
A broken web is mended very quick
ly, and they seem to like to do it better
than to make new one, as their sup
ply of glutinOus material sometimes
gives out, and if so, it can never be re-
newed. Nothing is left for the poor
spider in such a case, but to go prowl-
ing about till he finds a younger and
weaker one and venture to battle with
him. If he succeeds, all right he has
gained a home; but if defeated, he
must ''move on" like the poor tramp
as he is, to try his luck again.
A female spider generally lays from
nine hundred TO one thousand eggs a
season; sometimes as large as a mus
tard seed-sOmetimes so small you can
hardly see them. After they have re-
manned an hour or two to dry, she
makes bag to put them in, by spin
ming very strong web, and lining it
with down which she pulls off her
breast. just think of that, boys and
girls With drop of glue she sticks
this bag to the end of her body, and
carries it about with her till the little
ones burst their shells; and after a
time, when she thinks them large
enough to run, she bites open their
prison and let's them Out.-Congraqa
tiORahst.