The Life of the Weevil 
from his stronghold, some crevice in the 
rocks, and to browse before his door upon 
the grasses, mosses and lichens made tender 
by the flood. It takes a cataclysm to make 
that one travel! 
The wild freshets of the Aygues succeed 
in doing so. They bring into my part of 
the world and deposit in the osier-thickets 
the largest of our Snails, Helix pomatia, the 
glory of Burgundy. Rolled down the 
grassy mountain-slopes by the showers, the 
exile defies immersion within the water-tight 
cover of his chalky operculum; he endures the — 
jolting, thanks to his strong shell. He 
travels by stages, from one osier-bed to 
another. He descends as far even as the 
Rhone and colonizes the Ile des Rats and 
the fle du Colombier opposite the mouth 
of the Aygues. 
Whence does he come, this enforced 
emigrant, whom one would vainly seek else- 
where in the land of the olive? He loves a 
moderate temperature, green turf, cool 
shades. His place of origin is certainly not 
1H. pomatia is the Large Edible Snail—Translator’s 
Note. 
180 
