254 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER L. 



SELBORNE, April 2ist, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to 

 you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of Jts 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 ; how- 

 ever, 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 after- 

 noon, 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 



