in fe a s the Chinefe appropriate to making iilk, and whether P. Atlas is of the number, :
conjeftured.
cenfure it is now branded with, o f being a mere curiofity, void of any real utility If Lefer and ly om t are to be relied on.
The lieologh In/effes anfwers this query. « At this day there are to be found in China, in the province of Canton, filk
worms tn a wild ftate, which, without any care being taken of them, make in the woods a kind of filk which the inhabitants
• afterwards gather from the trees. It is grey, without luftre, and is ufed to make a very thick and ftrong cloth, named there
Kien Tcheon. It may be waihed like linen cloth, and does not ftain.” A Gentleman refident in the Eaft Indies, fpeaks of a
large Phalæna, producing filk in that country. “ We have a beautiful filk worm north-eaft o f Bengal, that feeds on the
Ricmus, whence I call it Phalæna Ricini : it is fea green, with foft fpines, very large, and voracious, and fpins a coarfe, but
ftrong and ufeful filk. The moth is of great fize, with elegant dark plumage.—Is it known to European Naturalifts a
ec/JrSion o f fa fc rs puhlijked by Dr. A n d e rso k , in Madra s, 1788. 178£).-M. Le Bon, Reaumur, Roefel, and feveral others,
have attempted to weave the filk of fpiders, as a fubftitute for that of filk worms, but their experiments rather amufe, and point
out the ingenuity o f the propofers, than promife to be ufeful ; for after many trials, it appears that the fdk of fpiders would be
inferior in luftre, and far more eipenfive than that of filk worms. Sir G. Staunton alludes to thefe experiments in his defcription
of the Java forefts. “ In fome open fpots were found webs of fpiders, woven with threads of fo ftrong a texture, as not
eafily to be divided without a cutting inftrument ; they feemed to render feafible the idea of him, who, in the fouthern
provinces of Europe, propofed a manufafture from fpiders’ threads ; which is fo ridiculous to the eyes of thofe who have only
viewed the flimfy webs fuch infefts fpin in England.”-M a n y other fubftances of a foft texture have alfo been wrought into a
variety of trifling arücles, as gloves, ftockings, &c. o f the fibres o f Aibeftos earth, or mountain flax, beard of the large Fima
ihell, ¿kc. &c.
• Naturalift and Traveller’s Companion, 1*74.
' If