I06 THE DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



of which a few, having their shells scaled up with 

 strong calcareous lids, were packed away in cotton- 

 wool and kept in a workshop until December, 1888, by 

 which time they seemed to have lost the weight and 

 coolness usually characteristic of life, and one, when 

 broken, showed the animal dried up like a bit of hard 

 horn ; but two others, laid on a pad of flannel under a 

 shade, and thus kept in a moist atmosphere, after a few 

 weeks showed signs of life, and were then removed to 

 a damp fern-case, where, in the following March, they 

 were seen walking out, somewhat feeble, but in good 

 colour and substance.^ 



Helix candidissima and H. vermiculata. — 

 Two specimens of H. candidissifna, placed in a box 

 by Woodward, in June, 1855, with the specimen of 

 H. aperta just referred to, remained dormant till 

 November, 1856, when they were immersed in water 

 and revived for a few hours ; on being put back into 

 the box, however, they became dormant again without 

 feeding, and in July, 1857, when the H. aperta was 

 removed for dissection, another individual of H. can- 

 didissima and one of H. vennicularis \? H. vermi- 

 ailata^ were put in with them, and all four remained 

 in a torpid state until Michaelmas, 1858, when the 

 observer conveyed the box in his pocket to the British 

 Museum, and the snails were all excited to activity by 

 the warmth and shaking they experienced. In April, 

 1859, when a note of the facts was written for publica- 



^ S. P. Woodward, "Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.," (3), iii. (1859), 

 448; R. D. Darbishire, " Journ. of Conch.," vi. (1889), loi. 



