ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



37S 



armour, "scald with safety." He therefore spends the more sultry 

 hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-leaf, or amidst the 

 waving forests of an asparagus bed. 



But, as he avoids heat in the summer, so, in the decline of the 

 year, he improves the faint autumnal beams, by getting within the 

 reflection of a fruit-wall ; and, though he never has read that planes 

 inclining to the horizon receive a greater share of warmth,* he 

 inclines his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit 

 every feeble ray. 



Pitiable seems the condition of this poor embarrassed reptile ; to 

 be cased in a suit of ponderous armour, which he cannot lay aside ; 

 to be imprisoned, as it were, within his own shell, must preclude, 

 we should suppose, all activity and disposition for enterprise. Yet 

 there is a season of the year (usually the beginning of June) when 

 his exertions are remarkable. He then walks on tiptoe, and is 

 stirring by five in the morning ; and, traversing the garden, 

 examines every wicket and interstice in the fences, through 

 which he will escape if possible ; and often has eluded the care 

 of the gardener, and wandered to some distant field. The motives 

 that impel him to undertake these rambles seem to be of the 

 amorous kind ; his fancy then becomes intent on sexual attach- 

 ments, which transport him beyond his usual gravity, and induce 

 him to forget for a time his ordinary solemn deportment. 



* Several years ago a book was written entitled " Fruit Walls Improved by Inclining 

 them to the Horizon: " in which the author has shown, by calculation, that a much 

 greater number of the rays of the sun will fall on such walls than on those which are 

 perpendicular. 



I'KIORY SEAL. 



