THE EDIBLE SNAIL. 71 



No incubation takes place, but they are left to the 

 care of nature ; and in three or four weeks, according 

 to the state of the weather and temperature, the 

 young are duly developed. 



On the chalk hills about Dorking and Reigate, 

 Mickleham, Boxhill, and in some parts of Kent, 

 this large snail is tolerably common, but we have 

 looked for it in vain upon the South Downs, where 

 we should certainly have expected to find it. Mr. 

 W. Jeffery of Ratham, near Chichester, writing to 

 us so recently as January 1874, says, " Many times 

 have I searched for Helix pomatia on our downs, 

 but always without success. Some five or six years 

 ago I had between thirty and forty sent me from the 

 Surrey Downs, a part of which I turned down in my 

 garden, and the remainder on a bank of light soil 

 near. Of those on the bank I saw no more, but 

 those in the garden seemed to do pretty well for a 

 time, and at least one brood of young were hatched, 

 some of which attained the full size. Now, how- 

 ever the old stock is no more, and last summer I saw 

 only two of those bred in the garden. These are of 

 of a much darker colour than the imported speci- 

 mens, and in their earlier stages of growth led me to 



