“The American Naturalist” for May, 1871, contains an interesting article on “Flying Spiders,” by J. H. Emerton. The species noticed by him are, no doubt, allied to the gossamer of Europe, and the phenomenon occurs early in autumn on the Islands of the St. Lawrence.During the month of July, 1871, while trout-fishing on a large lake near the Upper Assumption, about one hundred miles north of Montreal, my attention was drawn to an inflated transparent substance of an oblong cocoon shape, passing about fifty yards over my head.