The Land Snails. Helices 



they come to with their sensitive tentacles and stalked eyes. 

 The prominent ribbed jaw, and the remarkably complex radula 

 of twenty-one thousand teeth in serried ranks are freely exhibited 

 in action by a hungry Pomatia to which is presented a crisp leaf 

 of lettuce or cabbage. 



The name "Pomatia" is not from the Latin pomum, an apple, 

 though the shape has given significance to the familiar name, 

 apple snail. The Greek poma, a pot lid, is the root word. 



In autumn the snail prepares to go into winter quarters. It 

 burrows down among grass roots and leaf-mould until comfortably 

 pocketed, with the mouth upward; then it makes a roof of dead 

 leaves and other rubbish cemented with slime. Now the body 

 is drawn into the well hidden shell, and a thick limy stopper 

 (the pot lid), called the epiphragm, is formed by the secretion 

 of the foot gland. This has no single air hole, for it is porous, 

 like plaster of paris. Now the snail draws its body still further 

 back, makes an inner, papery door, and "lies down to pleasant 

 dreams." In spring this period of hibernation ends, and a very 

 hungry mollusk breaks through its doors, and comes forth to 

 ' feast on the young shoots of growing things. In June the pea- 

 sized, chalky-shelled eggs are laid in holes dug in the ground. 

 The number of eggs varies; probably fifty is above the average 

 The young come out forty days after, eating for their first meal 

 the egg shell that cramped their lusty growth at the last. 



Fortunately this interesting snail breeds in captivity. In 

 a snailery the whole life story may be watched. The simplest 

 comforts suffice — a glass jar with floor of damp woods mould 

 and a screened top to keep the snails in. A place outdoors in 

 autumn insures the hibernating, which would not occur in a warm 

 room. The growth of a flourishing snail brood is a wonderfully 

 interesting serial story. Their food and water are easily provided. 



Snail farming as a serious business thrives in the neigh- 

 bourhood of large cities in France, for the French are great snail 

 eaters. In all, nineteen species of Helix are considered edible, 

 though the large " Roman snail," H. pomatia, is the most import- 

 ant, commercially. This species is rarely eaten in England, 

 strange to say. 



The modern French name, escargatoir, means "snail farm." 

 Here is an authentic account of snail-raising for the Paris market, 

 which consumes a hundred thousand a day on an average, the 



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