SPIDERS AND THEIR HABITS. 109

changes in the weather. Further observations con-
firmed him in believing these creatures to be in the
highest degree sensitive of atmospheric influence,
and that their retirement and reappearance, their
weaving, and general habits, were so intimately con-
nected with variations in the weather, that he con-
sidered they were of all things best fitted to give
accurate intimation when severe seasons, or the
reverse, might be expected. In short, he pursued
these inquiries with so much industry and intelli-
gence, that, by remarking the habits of his spiders,
he was at length enabled to prognosticate the ap-
proach of stormy weather from ten to fourteen days
before it set in, which is proved by the following
facts, which ultimately led to his release.

When the troops of the French Republic over-
ran Holland in the winter of 1794, and kept rush-
ing forward over the ice, a sudden and unexpected
thaw, in the early part of the month of December,
threatened the destruction of the whole army unless
it were instantly withdrawn. The French generals
were thinking seriously of accepting a sum offered
by the Dutch and withdrawing their troops, when
dIsjouvil, who hoped that the success of the Re-
publican army might lead to his release, used every
exertion, and at length succeeded in getting a letter
conveyed to the French general in January 1795,
in which he pledged himself, from the peculiar