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UTILITY OF THE COMMON MOLE. 



the eye, provided with a muscular apparatus for the purpose of completely 

 closing the orifice, as occasion may require. 



The sense of smell is equally delicate as that of hearing, as the latter 

 warns it of its danger the former guides it to its food. How wonderful 

 are the arrangements of the Almighty! nothing is withheld which is 

 indispensible; and nothing is bestowed which is superfluous; or, in the 



words of Pope: — 



"Nature to all without profusion, kind, 

 The proper organs, proper powers assign'd; 

 All in exact proportion to the state, 

 Nothing to add, and nothing to abate." 



The voracity of the Mole is excessive — its sensation of hunger is 

 extreme, by the fact that an abstinence of ten or twelve hours is inva- 

 riably fatal to it. It is also a great drinker, and its ingenuity is 

 strikingly shewn in the plan adopted for obtaining a sufficient supply. 

 When there is a pond or stream near its abode, a tunnel is made 

 directly to it, if, however, it be too great a distance from such a source, 

 artesian wells, in miniature, are sunk, in which water is always found, 

 and in some soils these wells may be found full to the top. It is also 

 an expert swimmer; we have frequently on summer evenings watched them 

 in the act of bathing and swimming, which they seemed to much enjoy. 

 In its migration it will cross brooks or rivers, swimming admirably; and 

 when spring or autumn floods inundate the fields, it easily saves itself by 

 these means. 



Mechanically considered, the body of the Mole is a most perfect boring 

 instrument. The gimlet is in reality a perfect model of this little animal, 



as the annexed sketches illustrate; A, the outline of the Mole, B, that of 

 a gimlet. The body tapers from the shoulder to the nose, which is 





