SNAIL FOLK 



I now begin my detective work, which is all that 

 real science consists of, and first of all hold a stop 

 watch on my periwinkle. I know that I am only 

 imitating Aesop, but in the famous Reptile-Rodent 

 Derby no exact time was given. I find that on the 

 straightaway. Snail can make three inches in one 

 minute, and several heats of this one (which I have 

 rather obviously called James) and of a brother 

 snail, give the same pace. To show off my mathe- 

 matical skill I may state that this speed will in the 

 course of time and space give a foot in four minutes, 

 a yard in twelve and a mile in about fifteen days. 

 Having named my periwinkle and had his portrait 

 painted, his life is inviolate, so I sacrifice a neighbor 

 of exactly the same size. After a painless death I 

 remove him from his shell and find that he weighs 

 one and a quarter grams, his house two grams and 

 his thin, horny operculum only seven-thousandths 

 of a gram. We have a corresponding figure in a 

 man weighing one hundred and twenty-five pounds, 

 carrying a shed of two hundred pounds and a door 

 of about a pound weight. 



One of the most amazing things in the world and 

 one of the most exquisite adjustments is the gradual 

 unconscious fashioning of the shell by constant ad- 

 ditions to the rim as the inmate slowly increases in 

 size. No blueprints, no architects' designs, no plans; 

 just a formless mass of living jelly taking lime dis- 

 solved in the water and depositing it in smooth 

 nacre, or twists and columns and ridges; dyeing it 

 scarlet, lavender, green and royal purple. The color 



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