102 RIVERSIDE LETTERS Xill 



I have looked at them several times since and 

 find that they are still all there. They are 

 nearly all of one sort ; of a pale cream colour 

 with black stripes on their whorls. At first 

 I thought that they were dead or that the 

 shells were empty, as when I picked them off 

 the animal was scarcely to be seen ; but I 

 afterwards found that it had only drawn itself 

 up into the innermost coils of its shell. All 



that I squashed had the snail inside them, but 

 still I thought that they might be dead or 

 dying until a day or two ago when I took 

 some home to draw for you ; I put these on 

 my drawing board, flat, and drew one ; but 

 the next day, when I came to look at the 

 board, they had all righted themselves and 

 had crawled to some distance. I cannot 

 imagine what could be the purpose of these 



