For some interesting notices of the great spider of Brazil the reader is referred to Caldcleugh’s Travels in South America, London 1825, vol. i. ch. 2. p. 41; and to the Rev. R. Walsh’s Notices of Brazil, London 1830, vol. ii. p. 300, 301. Mr. Caldcleugh “_assisted in liberating from a spider’s net a bird of the size of a swallow, quite exhausted with struggling, and ready to fall a prey to its indefatigable enemies_.” Mr. Walsh had his light straw hat removed from his head by a similar web extending from tree to tree in an opening through which he had occasion to pass. He wound upon a card several of the threads composing the web; and he observes, that, as these spiders are gregarious, the difficulties experienced by M. Bon from the ferocity of the solitary European spiders in killing and devouring one another, would not exist if the attempt were made to obtain clothing from the former. In the forests of Java Sir George Staunton “found webs of spiders, woven with threads of so strong a texture as not easily to be divided without a cutting instrument.”--Account of Lord Macartney’s Embassy to China, London 1797, vol. i. ch. 7. p. 302. (See Chap. IX.) But, although we have no reason to believe, that the web of any spider was anciently employed to make cloth, yet these accounts may have referred to worms, possibly varieties of the silk-worm, which spun long threads floating in the air. The common silk-worm spins and suspends itself by its thread, long before it begins its cocoon. It appears probable, therefore, that there may have been wild varieties of this creature, or perhaps other species of the same genus, which in the earlier stages of their existence spun threads long enough for use. We ground this conjecture partly on the following passage from Du Halde’s History of China[59]. [59] Vol. ii. p. 359, 360, 8vo. edition, London, 1736. “The province of Chan-tong produces a particular sort of silk, which is found in great quantities on the trees and in the fields. It is spun and made into a stuff called _Kien-tcheou_. This silk is made by little insects that are much like caterpillars. They do not spin an oval or round cocoon, like the silk-worms, but very long threads. These threads, as they are driven about by the winds, hang upon the trees and bushes, and are gathered to make a sort of silk, which is coarser than that made of the silk spun in houses. But these worms are wild, and eat indifferently the leaves of mulberry and other trees. Those who do not understand this silk would take it for unbleached cloth, or a coarse sort of drugget.