The Common Snail. an 
appears to be a very serviceable kind of instrument 
to Mr. Helix aspersa, who, if his character be not 
aspersed, is very des ructive to all sorts of greenery. 
The lower lip is divided only in the middle, where 
there is an opening of some width: it is not horny, 
like the upper one. 
Snails lay eggs, which are about the size of very 
small peas; they are soft, and of a whitish colour. 
Being semi, that is, half, transparent, or clear, their 
contents can be partly seen; and in those of a water 
Snail, deposited against the side of a glass bottle, 
the young were detected with partially-formed shells 
upon their backs. 
To show how tenacious they are of life, it has 
been mentioned that Mr. 8. Simon, a Dublin mer- 
chant, had a collection of fossils and other curiosities 
left him by his father; among these were some 
shells of Snails, and fifteen years after the collection 
came into his possession, his son had the shells to 
play with, and placed them in a basin of water, 
when lo! out came the slimy bodies and knobbed 
horns of several of the Gasteropods, no doubt hungry 
enough after their long sleep. 
We all know that our Common Snails hybernate, 
or sleep through the winter. As soon as the chills 
of autumn are felt, they seek out some snug crevice 
