206 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



only in their search for animal food. On the contrary, moles were 

 preserved for a long time, by giving 1 them sparrows and frogs, or 

 even butcher's meat, and sometimes with worms, snails, and wood- 

 lice. 



Two moles having been put into a room without food, some 

 hours after, they were found the one pursuing the other, not a mo- 

 ment's cessation occurring ; by the next morning, the stronger had 

 eaten the weaker. 



With regard to the time during which a mole can fast, from ten 

 to twelve hours appears to be the maximum ; at the end of that 

 time they die. In three or four hours they become very hungry, 

 and in five or six hours exceedingly weak. Eating always seems 

 to refresh them perfectly, and, as happens with all carnivorous ani- 

 mals, they are very desirous of drinking when they eat: the con- 

 trary is observed with herbivorous animals. It is doubtful whether 

 any other animal exists, which is obliged to eat at such short inter- 

 vals as this. 



From what precedes, it is evident that the mole is essentially 

 a carnivorous animal. A new instance of the admirable relation 

 which connects organization with manners, and functions with 

 organs ; and a new proof, that whenever there appears to be a 

 contradiction between one of these things and the other, it is be- 

 cause the one or the other, the organization or the habits, have been 

 badly observed. 



M. Flourens remarks, that it will be interesting to observe in 

 what degree the other insectivores, all classed in fact by M. Cuvier 

 in the great family of Carnassieres, are really carnivorous ; and 

 especially what determinate modifications of their digestive organs 

 correspond to the various modifications of their regimen : that of 

 the hedgehog, for instance, which can eat fruits as well as insects, 

 and that of the shrewmouse, which ought to live entirely on prey, if 

 we judge by the shortness of the intestinal canal, which, as in true 

 carnivorous animals, like the tiger, lion, &c, is only about three 

 times the length of the body. 



14. On the Red Snow of the Arctic Regions. — The following are 

 parts of a letter by Mr. Nicholson, on this subject : — W In the 

 summer of 1821, I had an opportunity of examining this substance, 

 which has excited so much interest among naturalists in its native 

 situation, and I am only surprised that those gentlemen, who first 

 discovered it, should have any doubt as to the nature of its origin. 



" On the 24th of July, whilst our ship was beset with ice, near 

 Bushman's Island, I made a journey, accompanied by two other 

 gentlemen, to Sowallick Point, in quest of the meteoric iron, which, 

 we understood, was to be found in that quarter. We were disap- 

 pointed in the object of our visit ; but our mortification, on this 

 account, was somewhat lessened by meeting, for the first time, with 

 the crimson snow, which was described by Captain Ross. 



