TORPIDITY. 259 



Bingley in thinking that this is a well-authenticated fact. 

 Whether what follows is so, I leave to your own decision ; 

 but I will not say you are unreasonably sceptical if you 

 deem it too tramontane. " Professor Eaton, of New York, 

 stated," says my authority, " that the diluvial deposits 

 through which the Erie Canal was made contained ridges 

 of hard compact gravel. On cutting through one of these, 

 near Rome village, sixteen miles west of Utica, the work- 

 men found several hundred of live molluscous animals. 

 They were chiefly of the Mya cariosa and Mya purpurea. 

 The workmen took the animals, fried, and ate them. He 

 adds, I was assured that they were taken alive forty-two 

 feet deep in the deposit. Several of the shells are now 

 before me. The deposit is diluvial. These animals must 

 have been there from the time of the deluge, for the earth 

 in which they were is too compact for them to have been 

 produced by a succession of generations. These freshwater 



moved but slowly, probably from weakness. Major Valiancy and Dr. Span 

 were afterwards present, and saw one of the snails crawl out, the others being 

 dead, most probably from their having remained some days in the water. 

 Dr. Quin and Dr. Rutty also examined the living snail several different times, 

 and were greatly pleased to see him come out of his solitary habitation 

 after so many years' confinement. Dr. Macbride, and a party of gentlemen 

 at his house, were also witnesses of this surprising phenomenon. Dr. Mac- 

 bride has thus mentioned the circumstance : — ' After the shell had lain ten 

 minutes in a glass of water that bad the cold barely taken off, the snail 

 began to appear, and in five minutes more we perceived half the body 

 pushed out from the cavity of the shell. We then removed it into a basin, 

 that the snail might have more scope than it had in the glass ; and here in 

 a very short time, we saw it get above the surface of the water, and crawl 

 up towards the edge of the basin. While it was thus moving about, with 

 its horns erect, a fly chanced to be hovering near, and, perceiving the snail, 

 darted down upon it. The little animal instantly withdrew itself into the 

 shell, but as quickly came forth again when it found the enemy had gone 

 off. We allowed it to wander about the basin for upwards of an hour, when 

 we returned it into a wide-mouthed phial, where Mr. Simon had lately been 

 used to keep it. He presented me with this remarkable shell ; and I 

 observed, at twelve o'clock, as I was going to bed, that the snail was still 

 in motion ; but next morning I found it in a torpid state, sticking to the 

 side of the glass.' " — P/iil. Trans, ahridg. xiii. p. 566. 



" A few weeks afterwards the shell was sent to Sir John Pringle, who 

 showed it at a meeting of the Royal Society ; but some of the members 

 imagining that Mr. Simon must have been imposed upon by his son having 

 substituted fresh shells for those that had been given to him, the boy was re- 

 examined by Dr. Macbride on the subject, who declared that he could find 

 no reason to believe that the child cither did or could impose upon his 

 father. Mr. Simon's living in the heart of the city, rendered it almost im- 

 possible for the boy (if he had been so disposed) to collect fresh shells, 

 being at that time confined to the house with a cold. Mr. Simon has also 

 declared that he is positive those were the shells he gave to him, having 

 in his cabinet many more of the same sort, and nearly of the same size." — 

 Binglf.y's Animal Biography, vol. iii. p. 574. 



