HELIX. 179 



reach almost the summit. Owing to its large size and 

 the consistency of its body^ it has been from an early 

 period a favourite study of comparative anatomists. 

 Lister, Cuvier, and others have published full details of its 

 internal organization. But the most interesting account 

 of its physiology and habits is contained in a memoir by 

 M. Gaspard_, which will be found in the ^Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles ;^ and an excellent abstract of it, 

 with notes by Professor Bell, appeared in the 1st volume 

 of the ' Zoological Journal.^ Space will not admit of its 

 being reproduced here ; but I wiU briefly mention the 

 more salient points of this excellent memoir. M. Gas- 

 pard says that when the period of hibernating has arrived 

 these snails become indolent, lose their appetite, and 

 associate together. Each snail then excavates with its 

 large and muscular foot a hole in the ground, just large 

 enough to contain the shell ; this it roofs in and lines 

 with earth and dead leaves, making with its slime a kind 

 of mortar, and smoothing over the inner surface of its 

 winter domicile. Having accomplished this, it closes 

 the mouth of the shell with a thick calcareous lid, the 

 substance of which, when first poured out from the edges 

 of the mantle, resembles liquid plaster of Paris. It 

 then withdraws its body far into the interior of the shell, 

 covering, as it retires, the empty space with several layers 

 in succession of a fine membrane or film, in order the 

 more completely to exclude the cold air. In this snug 

 receptacle it remains in a torpid state until the return of 

 spring, all animal functions being in the mean time sus- 

 pended. It then loosens and casts aside its winter bands 

 and resumes its former life. In the genial month of 

 May, these snails unite for propagation, and in June they 

 commence laying their eggs, usually producing only a 



