Dwight Hill, age 11, of Ottawa, Ont . , for his question:

Is a snail an amphibian?

Amphibian is coined from two words meaning land and water. We can use this word loosely to describe such insects as the mosquito which spend their egg and larva stages in the water and their adult lives on land.

But strictly speaking, a true amphibian belongs to the animal class Amphibia. This class includes the frogs, toads, the newts and the salamanders. Snails are not amphibians, Some of them have gills and live only in the water. Some have lungs and cannot breathe oxygen from the water. They live on land. All snails belong to the Molluscs phylum of animals. They are very distantly related to the clams end oysters. Their special class is called Castropoda  the stomach footed ones.  This is because a snail's foot.