LAND SNAILS. 
119 
old walls, and on hedge-banks, but chiefly along 
the coast.” 
In the northern parts of Great Britain it seems 
thus to be partial to the vicinity of the sea. At 
Whitehaven it is found in innumerable quantities 
attached to a wall fronting the beach, and ex¬ 
posed to the sea-breeze. So, also, the late Mr. 
J. Thompson observed numbers of them on 
rocks subjected to the spray of the waves, which 
had bleached the portion of the shell thus ex¬ 
posed as white as it usually becomes in the pro¬ 
gress of decay, although the animal inhabitants 
were all in the highest vigour. 
The amours of this snail, as in fact of the 
other Helices , are conducted after a curious 
fashion. During the spring and summer the 
snails are furnished with spicula—crystalline 
darts, which they eject at each other; the tender 
passion is further excited by long-continued 
caresses with their horns, and they have been ob¬ 
served engagedin this love-making for the space 
of ten hours. The love-missiles are contained in 
a special pouch, and are peculiar to the genus 
Helix ; their shape, dimensions, and number, 
vary in the several species. In H. aspersa they 
are half an inch long, hollow, and square at the 
base. If there be but the one use for these 
weapons, it would seem that the snail occa¬ 
sionally misses his mark; for Mr. Hyndman, of 
