Neither before nor after was any such fall observed; but on this day
the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick, that a diligent
person sent out might have gathered baskets full.
The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appearances,
called gossamer, is, that, strange and superstitious as the notions
about them were formerly, nobody in these days doubts but that
they are the real production of small spiders, which swarm in the
fields in fine weather in autumn, and have a power of shooting out
webs from their tails so as to render themselves buoyant, and
lighter than air. But why these rapturous insects should that day
take such a wonderful aerial excursion, and why their webs should
at once become so gross and material as to be considerably more
weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, is a matter
beyond my skill. If I might be allowed to hazard a supposition, I
should imagine that those filmy threads, when first shot, might be
entangled in the rising dew, and so drawn up, spiders and all, by a
brisk evaporation into the region where clouds are formed: and if
the spiders have a power of coiling and thickening their webs in the
air, as Dr.
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