250 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



part of the summer ; for it goes to bed in the longest days at 

 four in the afternoon, 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 fifty, 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 after- 

 noon. This was a curious coincidence ! a very amusing occur- 

 rence ! to see such a similarity of feelings between the two 

 Qepeolicoi ! for so the Greeks call both the shell-snail and the 

 tortoise. 



Because we call " the old family tortoise " an abject reptile, 

 we are too apt to undervalue his abilities, and depreciate his 

 powers of instinct. Yet he is, as Mr. Pope says of his lord, 



' Much too wise to walk into a well :" 



and has so much discernment as not to fall down a ha-ha : 

 but to stop and withdraw from the brink with the readiest 

 precaution. 



Though he loves warm weather, he avoids the hot sun ; be- 

 cause his thick shell when once heated, would, as the poet says 

 of solid armour " scald with safety." He therefore spends the 

 more sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-leaf, or 

 amidst the waving forests of an asparagus-bed. 



But as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline of the 

 year, he improves the faint autumnal beams by getting within 

 the reflection of a fruit-wall ; and, though he never has read that 

 planes inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth, 

 he inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and 

 admit every feeble ray. 



