An exceptionally brilliant ignis fatuus flying before him would
affect him as the gleam of a lamp placed high above the surface affects
the migrants: he would not be able to keep his eyes from it, but would
quickly lose the sense of direction, and probably end his career much as
the bird does, by breaking his machine and perhaps his bones against
some unseen obstruction in the way.
CHAPTER XIV.
FACTS AND THOUGHTS ABOUT SPIDERS.
Some time ago, while turning over a quantity of rubbish in a little-used
room, I disturbed a large black spider. Rushing forth, just in time to
save itself from destruction through the capsizing of a pile of books,
it paused for one moment, took a swift comprehensive glance at the
position, then scuttled away across the floor, and was lost in an
obscure corner of the room. This incident served to remind me of a fact
I was nearly forgetting, that England is not a spiderless country. A
foreigner, however intelligent, coming from warmer regions, might very
easily make that mistake. In Buenos Ayres, the land of my nativity,
earth teems with these interesting little creatures. They abound in and
on the water, they swarm in the grass and herbage, which everywhere
glistens with the silvery veil they spin over it. Indeed it is scarcely
an exaggeration to say that there is an atmosphere of spiders, for they
are always floating about invisible in the air; their filmy threads are
unfelt when they fly against you; and often enough you are not even
aware of the little arrested aeronaut hurrying over your face with feet
lighter than the lightest thistledown.
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