A snail's pace meant “exceedingly slow” since at least 1592, when the expression was collected in a book of English proverbs, but until recently no one knew just how exceedingly slow that was. Recent studies have shown that snails travel at about two feet an hour, or one mile every three months or so. The snail has a good excuse, though: the weight of his shell to his body corresponds to a 129-pound man carrying a shed of some 200 pounds!