282 TORTOISE. 



L. 



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 Novem- 

 ber 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 at 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 Provi- 

 dence 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. 



