27G 
NATURAL HISTORY 
LETTER L. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 
Selborne, April 21, 1780. 
HE old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioued 
to you so often, is become my property. I 
dug it out of its winter dormitory in MarcJi 
last, when it was enough awakened to ex- 
press its resentment by hissing ; and, pack- 
ing 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 oppor- 
tunity 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 November 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 for 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 Providence 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 pro- 
foundest of slumbers. 
While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm after- 
