Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1895 — A Tedious Journey. [ARTICLE]

A Tedious Journey.

A “snail pace” need no longer be used as a term more or less indefinite. Those skilled in the science of “suallology” can tell you to a nicety the creature’s rate of travel. Some interesting facts were ascertained by experiment at the Florence Polytechnic Institute, and those inclined to be exact can now use figures to support their arguments. > Half a dozen snails were permitted to crawl between two points ten feet apart. Exact time was kept from the start to finish, and it was calculated that it would take a snail exactly fourteen days to travel a mile. The diatoms, single-celled plants of the seaweed family, are so small that three thousand of them laid end to end scarcely suffice to cover an inch on the rule.