244 Dr. Schreibers's Description of 
formance of which I have been guided by no partiality in favour 
of any particular opinion, but simply by the desire of know- 
ledge ; and shall not attempt to speak decisively upon the sub- 
ject, until farther opportunities may afford me the means of as- 
certaining the nature of this interesting animal. As all attempts 
to send it alive to Vienna, (a distance of about 250 English 
miles,) have been in vain, I have had no opportunity of observing 
its nature and actions in the living state ; I can, therefore, only 
communicate the few observations which Baron Zois had the 
opportunity of making, he having had the good luck to get some 
specimens alive, and to keep one of them so during several 
days. His observations were communicated to me, with the 
specimens, in the month of September 1795, in November 17 99, 
and in January 1800. 
In his first letter he says, he had some hopes of sending 
me the animal alive, as it seemed to take some nourishment, 
having thrown up from its stomach, the first days of his 
keeping it in the water of the lake, (in which it was brought 
to him, ) a great many small shells of the genus Helix; but 
he soon found his hopes disappointed, as he saw that it would 
not take either these shells or any other food, and became 
from day to day more languid and weak. The seventh day it 
lay upon its back, and the skin became covered with a flaky 
glutinous slime, as is commonly observed on amphibious ani- 
mals when dying. It seemed, when alive, very torpid, and 
moved but seldom ; it swam however sometimes, with the help 
of its broad tail, very swiftly, in every direction. Twice he 
observed it touch one of those shells with the extremity of its 
beak, and fling it twelve inches distance, on the bottom of the 
vessel wherein it was kept. The first days it crept slowly on 
