A QUEER INDUSTRY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 13, 29 December 1925, Page 5

A QUEER INDUSTRY.

PARIS STORES T T P SNAILS FOL* AV I NT ER. One of 1 be queerest induslries in ill,, world is that of the Paris snail mid storage depot, states the “Now York T imes.” Twentv million of the tough little slugs, appreciated as a great delicacy by French epicures, aro yearly accommodated alive in it and sloop away the summer months under the impression that they are hibernating. Snails aro only oaten in autumn and winter, hut at that time of year they are hard to obtain. Their natural habit is 2° burrow into tho roots of bushes and other sheltered spots, where they draw a right film of skio over the opening of their shell and g • to sleep until the cold weather is over. In the summer heat when the snnih emerge, the snail dealers go to work. They catch the molluscs and pack them away carefully in wooden cases. < u layers of straw. The cases art' then carried to the cold storage depots, where they are piled high, scores on scores of them. Tho temperature is kept as near as possible to that of the average winter. T'hp deluded snails go fast asleep and are alive, fresh, an 1 easily available when appetites ar« ready for them. They are of two kinds Hint Paris stores away—tho groat white Burpundv snail and tho common or garden snail. The Burgundy, or Roman, snail is the monarch of its race. Tt measures two inches across -and is broad in proportion-— a succulent and costly dish. The plain hrnwn an 1 grey striped snail is a nigrnv in oomparison, but oven Hit' eai’don plague lias a