IN A SNAILERY. 23 
aperture a film of slimy mucus, which hardens.as tight as 
-a miniature drum-head. As the weather becomes colder, 
the creature draws itself a little farther in, and makes an- 
other ‘“epiphragm,” and so on until often five or six pro- 
tect the animal sleeping snugly coiled in the deepest. re- 
cesses of his domicile. 
This state of torpidity is so profound that all the ordi- 
nary functions of the body cease—respiration being so en- 
tirely suspended that chemical tests are said to discover no 
change from its original purity in the air within the epi- 
phragm. Thus the snail can pass without exhaustion the 
long cold months of the north, when it would be impossi- 
ble for it to secure its customary food. This privilege of 
privacy reminds me of an old distich about another hiber- 
nater : 
“The tortoise securely from danger does well, 
When he tucks up his head and his tail in his shell.” 
The reviving sun of spring first interrupts this deep 
slumber, and the period of awakening is therefore delayed 
with the season, according to the varying natures of the dif- 
ferent species. A few species, however, seem to hibernate 
very little, vitrina, for example, having been seen active in 
cold weather, and even crawling about in the snow; while 
the finest American specimens live high up on the Itocky 
