5(54 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Both male and fehialc Young snails. 



shell with them. The next peculiar quality is 

 that of their being both male and female, and 

 that while it impregnates another, is capable o'f 

 being impregnated itself. 



At the expiration of eighteen days they pro- 

 duce their eggs, which they hide with great 

 caution and industry under the earth. These 

 eggs are round, white, and covered with a soft 



: shell ; they 'produce them in very great numbers', 

 and they are stuck together by a kind of slime, 

 not in a thick bu'nch, but rather, as it has been, 

 said, like a bunch of grapes. On quitting the 



.egg, the animal has a' very small shell on its 

 bak, with only orie convolution ; this very soon 

 enlarges, and the circles increase with the growth 

 of the animal; never, however, exceeding fot/r 

 rounds and a half in the garden snail, though 

 there are sea snails which sometimes have no 

 less than ten. The first circle remains in its ori* 

 ginal state, and the animal always adds to the 

 shell at the mouth which it increases as it grows 

 in size, and until it is sufficiently large to contain, 

 its whole body. 



Snails are possessed not only of a power rif 

 retreating into their shell, but of mending it 

 when broken. Sometimes these animals are 

 crushed seemingly to pieces, and to all appear- 

 ance utterly destroyed ; yet still they set theni- 



-selves to work, and in a few days mend all their 

 numerous breaches. The same substance by 

 which the shell is originally made, goes to the 



^ 



