THE SNAIL. 



Lesson I. 



The French edible anail is the one we nse if we oan get it, bnt a 

 lesson can be given on any good-sized land or water snail. The 

 sing (Fig. 1), which is simply a snail withoat any external shell, 



Fig. 1. 



oan be obtained at any season, it is said, by setting a trap for it in 

 a greenhonse. The trap is a box of moist bran, whioh will attract 

 it as oheese allures mice. Bnt the sing is so likely to be repulsive 

 to pnpils that it is much better to collect snails in the snmmer and 

 keep them in flower-pots or boxes of earth covered with moss to 

 retain the moistnre. If kept in a cool place, they will hide away 

 nnder the moss, close np their shells with a layer of macns, and 

 sleep comfortably through the winter. If any of them come ont 

 occasionally on warm days, they will like to be fed with some wet 

 bran or Indian meal. When they are active, the box should be 

 covered with a wire netting to prevent their escape from snoh 

 narrow quarters. A large colony has been kept in this way for 

 more than a year, fed dniing the snmmer upon lettuce, of whioh 

 they are very fond. 



If the lesson is given in the winter and the snails have been kept 

 in a cool place, the shells will be closed with a layer of mucus, and 

 we can study them before the snails come out. 



The shape of the shell reminds us of '' a horn curled 

 up." It has often made five or six turns in coiling, and 

 each turn is called a whorl (Fig. 2). The whorls together 

 form the spire, and the lines between the whorls are the 

 satures. From the opening, or aperture, we trace the 

 whorls up to the apex, where we find the little bag-like 



