3C79^» 0^' ^^''^ generation offfbes. • 5^ 



selves deep in tlie gioiu.d, in nests formed for t.',e 

 ■purpose. Snails v/e know have the singular power of 

 <ontinuing in life for nrianv yf^rs. The animals 

 ■though kept in a cabinet perf^'ctly dry, and apparent- 

 ly dead during the whol.- time, yet recover life wiien 

 placed in circumstances favourable for it. 



These hypotheses are irigcnioui ; but how far ei- 

 ther of them are just^ remains to be proved ; one 

 great objection however occurs to both of them, vi%. 

 if these animals did actually bury themselves, and 

 remain in tlie earth during the dry season, it must 

 happen that they would often be found in that kind 

 of torpid "^^tate in the earth. In no country of ihe 

 world is the surface mould more apt to be exa:an:ed 

 than in India, where the busiiiefs of digging tanks is 

 so generally and universally practised, on a very large 

 scale ; and as these tanks will naturally be dug in the 

 hollow places, where the fifli would most abound, it 

 must happen that their nests would thus be frequent- 

 ly discovered during theseopera-tions, if such did real- 

 ly exist. But none of my informants had ever heard 

 -of any thing of this sort. 



Another way in w!iich we might suppose it paf- 

 sible that this phenomenon -could be produced, is, chat 

 if fifti by any accident fhould once be brought into tnese 

 po Is, which we can conceive might happen in innu- 

 merable ways i and supposing the spawn of these ani- 

 mals, like the seeds of plants, or theeggs of insects, to re- 

 main withoutlife untilcircumstancts became favourable 

 for their germinating, it miglit so happen that the spawn 

 which was emitted immediately before the dry wea- 

 ther set in., l;c!ing left deprived of the necefsarj- mois- 



