130 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



disturbed ; and beside it there was a small col- 

 lection of nuts and acorns. 



My aunt has lent me a cage, and we shall see 

 whether the warmth of the house can overcome 

 its habit of sleeping during the rest of the 

 winter; but I shall not for some days put it 

 into a warm room ; it shall be treated as if it 

 had been frozen, and revived very gradually. 



The same person, my uncle says, who tried 

 the experiment on crickets, which I men- 

 tioned to you a fortnight ago, shut up some 

 garden snails in a wafer- box, where he secluded 

 them from food and water ; but not from air, for 

 he made several small holes in the box. He 

 also put a few snails into a bottle from which all 

 air was excluded ; they, of course, died ; but 

 those in the perforated boxes retired into their 

 shells, the aperture of which they closed with a 

 thin membrane; and there they remained ap- 

 parently dead, as long as they were kept dry. 

 On being dropped into water of the tempera- 

 ture of 70, they were found quite alive in four 

 hours, and sticking to the plate which covered the 

 vessel. One large snail was imprisoned for three 

 years, and yet it revived on being put into water. 



I was told a most singular instance of the 

 length of time for which life may be suspended 

 in those animals. Some snail-shells had for 

 many years formed part of a little museum ; 

 one night the window of the room was left 



