To shew how tenacious they are of life, it has been mentioned that Mr. S. Simon, a Dublin merchant, had a collection of fossils and other curiosities left him by his father; among these were some shells of Snails, and _fifteen years_ after the collection came into his possession, his son had the shells to play with, and placed them in a basin of water, when lo! out came the slimy bodies and knobbed horns of several of the _Gasteropods_, no doubt hungry enough after their long sleep. We all know that our Common Snails hybernate, or sleep through the winter. As soon as the chills of autumn are felt, they seek out some snug crevice in an old wall, or burrow in the earth, or congregate beneath garden pots, roots of trees, thatched roofs, or in any hole or corner that may be convenient, and then throwing a kind of temporary skin, like a drum head, which naturalists call _operculum_, over the opening of their shells, and sticking themselves fast to the sides of their refuge, or to each other, they sleep away, careless of frosts and tempests. A moist and rather warm state of the atmosphere seems most congenial to the land Snails, some species of which are found in all countries, except those where the most intense cold prevails. Generally speaking, they do not like dry heat, and to escape from it will get under stones, and into other cool places, from whence a shower brings them forth in such numbers, the smaller species especially, as to lead to the popular belief that it sometimes rains Snails. These _Gasteropods_, although extremely injurious to vegetation, must not be regarded as worse than useless, as they commonly are; besides furnishing food for several wild, as well as domesticated, birds, they are no doubt a nourishing article of diet for man. The Romans had their _cochlearia_, where Snails were regularly fed and fattened for the table; and the French at the present day their _escargotoires_, or Snailery, for the same purpose; some of the Snails so kept, attain an immense size, as well they may if fed, as by the Romans, on new wine and meal. Many poor persons, especially those who are consumptive, might no doubt derive much cheap sustenance and benefit from using the larger species of _Helicidæ_, which might be collected from hedges and gardens as food. Why should they not eat those as well as the marine mollusks, such as Oysters, Cockles, Whelks, etc.