25) NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
i oe Rls 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE, AZril 21st, 1780. 
DEAR SiIR,—The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to 
you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter 
dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express 
its resentments by hissing; and, packing it in a box with earth, 
carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of 
the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on a 
border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden ; however, 
in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose 
mould, and continues still concealed. 
As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of 
enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propensities ; 
and perceive already that, towards the time of coming forth, it 
opens a breathing place in the ground near its head, requiring, I 
conclude, a freer respiration as it becomes more alive. This 
creature not only goes under the earth from the middle of 
November to the middle of April, but sleeps great part of 
the summer : for it goes to bed in the longest days at four in the 
afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides, 
it retires to rest for every shower, and does not move at all in wet 
days. 
When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter 
of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a profusion 
of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that 
appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of 
its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for 
months together in the profoundest of slumbers. 
While I was writing this letter,a moist and warm afternoon, with 
the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell-snails ; and, 
at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out 
its head ; and the next morning came forth, as it were raised from 
the dead, and walked about till four in the afternoon. This was a 
curious coincidence ! a very amusing occurrence! to see such a 
