About this journal

Snails is a field journal about gastropods. Most of the notes are about the land snails of gardens, with a few on the freshwater and shore animals a walker can recognize without a laboratory. They are written to be read once, slowly, and then taken outside.

The aim is accuracy, in plain words where a plain word will do. Where a result is still argued, the note says so. Where a habit is harmful, the note says that too. Salt is not a control. Releasing a pet into a new place is not kindness. Picking up a live cone shell is not curiosity.

These pages are not a veterinary manual and not a cookbook. A snail that may be a regulated invasive species should be identified with a local agricultural office before it is moved. A snail meant for the table should come from a farm that raised it for that purpose.

The journal stays with the animal in front of you: shell, foot, tentacle, trail, and the weather that decides whether it is out at all.