6 INTRODUCTION. 
and can be used in the quiet of one’s 
own room. There is, however, 
sometimes a difficulty in the dis- 
posal of the boiled corpses. My 
usual plan is to wait for a lull in the 
traffic and carefully empty them out 
of the window. This plan is not 
perfect, I must admit, for, in spite of 
all reasonable care, this operation 
has on several occasions given rise to 
much profanity in the street below. 
Finally, remember never to be 
without a receptacle of some sort 
when out, even though not on a 
regular expedition. Should you hap- 
Portable Spirit Lamp 
and Pan. 
pen to be thus unprovided, you will 
be sure to regret it. 
The following incident may point the moral :— 
Some years ago at Bagdad, on the desert under a bush of scrub I 
came upon a couple of dead He/7x caperata which I wanted to preserve 
carefully for the sake of the locality. Now, though I had had two 
years’ experience of Egyptian and Arabian deserts, I had never found 
a single snail (though I had heard of Helix desertorun), and I might,, 
therefore, be excused for not encumbering myself with a receptacle. 
However, I was carrying with me the key of my bedroom door, 
according to the inconvenient foreign custom, which key, of native 
make, was large enough for a medieval church door. Now, for the 
first time, I regarded its size with favour, as I was enabled to drop the 
shells down the hole (like bullets down the muzzle of a blunderbuss), 
which I then plugged up. By the time I reached home I had forgotten 
the shells, nor did I remember them till I began to wonder why my 
door would not open in spite of my increased efforts. I.suddenly 
remembered the shells and then—well, Tableau ! 
