[Gutenberg 40880] • Our British Snails

[...]vegetable fragments. Using the precious gift of observation, we have found our shells; at home we exercise the other gifts of comparison and order, in the preparation and arrangement of our collection. A dash of quite boiling water kills instantaneously any molluscs whose shells we want to preserve, and then the body is extracted after the fashion observed with regard to winkles at tea. Be careful to get out all the body of the animal, and then it is well to wash out any slime or particles by directing a fine but strong jet of cold water into the shell. This can be done by holding your thumb nearly over the mouth of a watertap, while the shell is held in the left hand. Only adult shells should usually be taken, and those which are weather-worn or bleached should be neglected. In most the lip, or[...].