M. de Martens states that the annual export of snails from Ulm, by the
Danube, for the purpose of being used as food in the season of Lent by
the convents of Austria, amounted formerly to ten millions of these
animals. They were fattened in the gardens in the neighborhood.
Mr. Rowe gives us the following account: "I was at Mr. Haddock's," says
he, "in Kent, and was making a little shell-work tower, to stand on a
cabinet in a long gallery. Sea-shells running short before I had
finished, I recollected having seen some pretty large snails on the
chalk hills, and we all went out one evening to pick up some. On our
return, I procured a large China basin, and putting a handful or two of
them into it, filled it up with boiling water. I poured off the first
water, and filled the bowl again. I then carried it into a summer-house
in the garden. Next morning, how great was my surprise, on entering the
summer-house, to find the poor snails crawling about, some on the edge
of the basin, some tumbling over, some on the table, and one or two
actually eating paste that was to stick them on! I picked up every
snail carefully, and carried them into a field, where I make no doubt
that they perfectly recovered from their scalding."