THE SNAIL. 53 



II. THE SNAIL. 



THE school-boy of three centuries ago must have 

 been a very slow creeper, or else his school was en- 

 tirely unattractive. Shakespeare, in describing the 

 seven ages, says: 



"Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel 

 And shining morning face, creeping like snail 

 Unwillingly to school." 



Probably there are no such boys in these days. But 

 we have snails, and by studying them we may know 

 at least one characteristic of the boy of three hundred 

 years ago. 



The snail deserves more notice than it has been 

 accustomed to receive. It is far more intelligent than 

 any animal before spoken of. It has been tamed, and 

 trained to come out of its shell, when called. In Europe 

 it is regarded as a nice article of food. In this country 

 it has never been used very much for the table, al- 

 though, in this respect, it is rapidly gaining friends. 



The snail is like the clam and the oyster, in two gen- 

 eral features. It has a soft body without a bone, and 

 it has a hard shell to cover the body. It is a mollusk 

 because it is soft; but it is not a bivalve, because its 

 shell does not divide into two valves. It has but one 

 shell, and is, therefore, a univalve. This shell, or one 

 nearly like it, must be looked at a moment, and its 

 different parts learned. 



The figure is that of an Illinois pond snail. It is 

 turned, coiled, or whirled into a spire like the point 

 of a gimlet. Its general form is that of a cone. The 



