Fun Discovery of a “Snail Trail”

Thought this might be fun, and is a welcome break from writing about politics. Discovering more about this beautiful universe of ours is one of the true joys in my life.  This morning when I went out to get the paper, I finally saw a snail making a live “snail trail.”  Notice that the trail is not continuous, but is a series of “spots.”  I watched the snail for about 15 minutes moving across concrete headed towards the safety of grass and noticed that when the snail is moving, it always only has three points of its “foot” on the ground, with arches between these points.  The rear of the foot lifts and picks up on the middle point, and the middle point then lifts to rest on the front point.  Thus the trail looks as follows in the picture.  Notice that when you see a snail trail in shallow water, such as when your sprinkler systems runs off onto the cement, you still see the trail.  Apparently this is because the mucous is of an oily hydrophobic substance that repels water. Below is a picture of the snail making a trail: