You will next find entered in your journal the creature called a black snail, but which is in fact a slug, as it has no visible shell. On looking for the word Slug in the _Penny Cyclopædia_ you will find yourself referred to Limax, and under that head you will find a figure very nearly resembling the creature you are seeking for, though it differs in colour; as it is called Arìon rùfa, or the red slug, while the creature you saw was the black slug, called Arìon àter; and if you have the courage to examine the living animal you will find it very curiously formed. Its back is covered with a black ribbed skin, and on the upper part it bears a shield, which consists of a piece of bone, the only one in the slug's body, covered with skin; the shield being designed to protect the air-hole through which the creature breathes. What we are accustomed to call its horns are, in fact, tentacula or feelers, which the creature has the power of drawing into its body or pushing out at pleasure, and which are gifted with an exquisitely fine sense of touch. The long shining line with which the creature marked its path is the slime which proceeds from its body, and with which it is enabled to glide smoothly over sand or gravel that would otherwise injure it. I have said more on this subject than I should otherwise have done, because I wish to point out to you that even a creature so humble and so despicable as a slug, is as curiously and wonderfully made, and displays the power and wisdom of its Creator, as decidedly, as the noblest and most beautiful animal. The study of natural history is, indeed, I think, more fitted than any other to open our minds to a proper knowledge of the wisdom and goodness of God; and the more we study it the more firmly we shall be convinced that nothing has been made in vain, and that everything has been most admirably suited to the station which it is destined to fill. The curious fungus you will find, by comparing it with the _Encyclopædia of Plants_, is Nidulària campanulàta, which the Scotch call "Siller Cups." There is a popular superstition in Scotland respecting these pretty little cups, which says that if you find them alone you will have as much money as they contain little balls. These balls are, however, cases containing the sporules, or seeds, of the fungus.