Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/573

Rh "I therefore took pains to surround them with conditions analogous to those they meet with when, after the water has retreated, the soil first becomes dry, and then hardens. The water in the aquarium was drawn off little by little as soon as the animals had burrowed into the mud. Three weeks had scarcely passed, and already the hardened earth showed a number of cracks; through these a small quantity of air is admitted, which supports respiration.



"On the seventieth day I examined the earth, and found that the two animals had met with such conditions as enabled them successfully to live through the artificially-produced dry season: they were enveloped in cocoons, and were full of life, as was shown by their motion on being touched ever so lightly.