270 THE WOODLANDS. 



they abound in the vineyards, and are consumed 

 regularly in the restaurants of Paris. The proprietor 

 of one snailery near Dijon is affirmed to clear annu- 

 ally three hundred pounds by his snails. In Switzer- 

 land there are established gardens for their cultivation. 

 In Austria and some parts of Italy they are con- 

 sumed regularly as a matter of course. About sixty 

 thousand pounds of snails are annually exported 

 from the island of Crete for consumption. The taste 

 for this delicacy has also extended to North America. 

 That they were eaten in Spain is evident from a 

 picture by Murillo, in the collection of the Duke of 

 Devonshire, of a beggar boy eating a snail-pie. A 

 writer, passing through the markets of Rome in 

 March, states that he saw exposed for sale " baskets 

 of frogs and shell snails ; these were crawling about, 



WOOD SNAIL. 



and were pushed back by the boys." Why may these 

 not be as good food as the sea-snails, called whelks 

 and periwinkles, which are consumed in enormous 

 quantities, even in England, where the land-snail is 

 despised ? 



If it should be conceded that living snails are not 

 the most agreeable creatures to collect and study, 

 the same objection will not hold against their shells; 



