A LONG SLEEP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1661, 16 April 1884, Page 2

A LONG SLEEP.

A. certain famous.historical desert, .snail .was brought from England asia conctological speoimenintho year 1846.' This;particular molluscL>(th.e only,one' of his race, probably, who ever attained to individual distinction) at the time of

his arrival in London, was roally alive and vigorous, but as the authorities of the British Museum, to whose tender care he was consigned, were ignorant of this important fact in his economy, lio was gummed mouth downward, on tc a piece of cardboard, and duly labelled and dated with scientific accuracy, "Helix Dessertorum, March 25,1846." Being a snail of a retiring and con'tented'disposition,however, accustomed to long.; droughts and corresponding naps' in his' native' sarid' wastes, our mollusc thereupon simply- curled himself up into the topmost recesses of his own whorls, and went placidly to sleep in perfect contentment: for an unlimited period. 'Every coiichologisfc takes it for granted of course that tho shells which he receives from foreign parts have had their inhabitants properly toiled and extracted before being exported j for it is only the mere outer shell or skeleton of the animal that wo preserve in our cabinets/ leaving the actual flesh and muscles of the creature himself to wither unobserved upon its native shores,.. At the British Museum the desert: snail might:have, snoozed away, his inglorins.existence unsuspected but for a happy accident which attracted rpublio . attention,. to, his remarkable case .in ;] ai,most; extraordinary manner. On March 7,1850, nearly four years later, it was casually observed that; the. card on which he reposed was slightly discoloured; and this discovery'led to the suspicion:that perhaps l a living animal might be temporarily immursed within that papery toinb. The museum authorities accordingly ordered our friend a warm bath (who shall say hereafter that science is unfeeling ?) upon which the graceful snail, waking up at the touch of the familiar moisturo put his head cautiously out of his shell walked up to the top of the basin, and began to take a cursory survey of British institutions with hist four eye bearing tenacles. So strange a recovery from a long torpid condition only equalled by that of the seven sleepers of Epheus deserved an exceptional amount of scientific recognition. ; The desert snail at once woke and found himself famous. Nay, he actually sat for his portrait to an eminent zoological artist, Mr Waterhouse, and a sketch thus produced, with a history of his life and adventures, may be found even to this day iii Dr Woodward's "Manual of Mollusca," to witness if I lie.—The Comhill Magazine.