MOLLUSCA. 149 



A snail-garden consists either of a large square 

 plot of ground boarded in, the floor of which is 

 covered half a foot deep with herbs, or of broad 

 illow pits sunk in the ground. In these the 

 snails are kept. They are fed with fresh leaves, 

 bran, and potatoes during summer ; and in winter, 

 when they fix themselves against the walls of the 

 pit, they are collected, packed in casks, and sent to 

 market (see fig. 15, p. 153). 



Four millions of snails are sent annually from 

 the snail-gardens of the town of Ulm, in Germany ; 

 and this is no monopoly, for the other snail-gardens 

 of Germany are in a flourishing state. 



Helix pomatia is not so common in England as on 

 the Continent ; it is found abundantly, however, near 

 Dorking. Some naturalists believe it to have been 

 accidentally introduced into England, at a compara- 

 tively recent period; but others suppose it to be 

 indigenous to the British Isles, though rare. I 

 have frequently observed very fine specimens in the 

 neighbourhood of Brussels, where the climate seems 

 to suit it remarkably, and where its cultivation 

 would doubtless succeed admirably. 



Helix aspersa, our common Garden Snail, is not 

 deemed worth the trouble of cultivation, so long as 

 the former larger species can be obtained. It is 

 distributed over a large portion of the globe ; we 

 find it, or at least varieties of it, at the foot of 



