250 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER L. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, April zist, 1780. 



DEAR SIR, The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to 

 you so often, is become my property. I dug it out of its winter 

 dormitory in March last, when it was enough awakened to express 

 its resentments by hissing ; and, packing it in a box with earth, 

 carried it eighty miles in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of 

 the journey so perfectly roused it that, when I turned it out on a 

 border, it walked twice down to the bottom of my garden ; however, 

 in the evening, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose 

 mould, and continues still concealed. 



As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of 

 enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propensities ; 

 and perceive already that, towards the time of coming forth, it 

 opens a breathing place in the ground near its head, requiring, I 

 conclude, a freer respiration as it becomes more alive. This 

 creature not only goes under the earth from the middle of 

 November to the middle of April, but sleeps great. part of 

 the summer : for it goes to bed in the longest days at four in the 

 afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides, 

 it retires to rest for every shower, and does not move at all in wet 

 days. 



When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter 

 of wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a profusion 

 of days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that 

 appears to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of 

 its existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for 

 months together in the profoundest of slumbers. 



While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, with 

 the thermometer at 50, brought forth troops of shell snails ; and, 

 at the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out 

 its head ; and the next morning came forth, as it were raised from 

 the dead, and walked about till four in the afternoon. This was a 

 curious coincidence ! a very amusing occurrence ! to see such a 



