HELIX SNAIL. 107 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE SHELL AND ITS 

 INHABITANT. 



The shape of the Helix varies considerably : 

 some of the species exhibit quite a turreted 

 form ; * in others the whorls are arranged on a 

 horizontal plane,f so that the spire is quite flat- 

 tened, and the course of the volutions may be 

 seen either from the upper or under part of the 

 shell. Many display a form between these two 

 extremes; others again are turbinate, and of a 

 globose appearance. J 



There is not, perhaps, any thing in animated 

 nature more abundant or universally diffused 

 than snails ; the butterfly alone can compete with 

 them in this respect. Snails are found in the 

 most barren and desert wastes. There are parts 

 of the great Sahara destitute of all manner of 

 herbage, except here and there a tuft of coarse 

 grass, or a solitary stunted laurel, which accord- 

 ing to the Psalmist's description, " withereth 

 before it be plucked up." Yet these parched 

 specimens of vegetation are sometimes quite 

 studded with snails. It has often been conjec- 

 tured, that snails were in part the food of the 

 Israelites, when they took their rapid flight from 

 Egypt; for the country, through which they 

 passed in their way to the Red Sea, is described 



* Plate V. figure 3. t Plate V. figure 2. 



J Plate V. figure 1. 



