“There was great anxiety to see the sky through the glass, and the first night available it was turned to the stars. To our consternation, there was a great, long flare of light running through every bright star we examined. This was so strong and conspicuous that it would make the instrument utterly useless. It looked as if the lens had been injured by the shock of the floor against the pier. We examined it in all positions of the instrument, but we could not get rid of the glaring defect. As I had used the glass more than anyone else before the accident, my statement that the defect did not then exist made the matter all the more serious. It was with heavy hearts that we waited for day to again critically examine the lens. The next day we all examined the great glass very carefully, but could see nothing wrong with it. Then Professor Hale noticed that just back of the glass in the tube was a thick mass of spider webs stretched across the tube, all running in the same direction. Upon comparing notes we found that the direction of the spider webs coincided with that of the flare of light seen the night before. It seemed that a spider had evidently got in the tube before the object glass was put on by Clark, and had been unable to get out; for there was no opening in the tube. During the time the tube remained at rest, while the new floor was being put in, he had climbed up to the great glass in the direction of the light; and when he found his egress barred by the great window, he spun his web, perhaps as a signal of distress, or maybe in the hope that some unlucky fly might get in through the glass that he could not get out of—anyway, with the result that he caused several astronomers the most uneasy time of their lives. When these webs were swept out by one of the astronomers climbing up in the tube with a feather duster, it was found that night, when the stars were examined, that the flare had vanished and the mighty glass was uninjured.” CHAPTER SEVEN ORIGIN OF COMETS AND METEORS (THEORIES ADVANCED BY THE LATE RICHARD A. PROCTOR.) Among the author’s most treasured possessions is a clipping from the Cincinnati _Daily Gazette_ for February 18, 1874, containing a report of a lecture given by her father, on “Comets and Meteors,” from which the following is an extract: