28 



BEl'ISIOX OF AMERICAN MOLES— TRUE. 



A very extraordiuary essay connected with this subject is that of Dr. 

 Robert Bell on "The causes of the fertility of the land in the Canadian 

 Northwest Territories.''^ He advances the theory that the fertility of 

 the soil of the territory stretching northwestward from the Laird lliver 

 at GO degrees north latitude, is chiefly or entirely due to the action of 

 moles. He remarks: 



The formation of the vegetalile mold in these rejiions must, therefore, be due to 

 sonic other agency than that of worms, and this I hclieve to be principally the moles, 

 which live in A^ast numbers throughout the region in (jucstion. » * * There 

 appear to be three or four different species of them. 



He begins the paragraph from which the foregoing sentences are 

 taken with the remark: "As far as I am aware, earthworms are not 

 found in the Northwest." 



CiEOIiKAPHlCAI, DISTEIHUTION OK SCALOl'S. 



Taking these statements in connection with others regarding food and 

 habits, it is evident that Dr. Bell has entirely mistaken the nature of 

 the animals he saw, being unacquainted with the appearance and hab- 

 its of the mole. It seems probable that he really had to do with voles 

 and lemmings. 



The common mole is mentioned by Long' in the list of animals 



latitudes on account of the absence of earthworms (see ante, p. 26). Richardson 

 makes a further remark on this subject, as follows: "I was told by a gentleman 

 who has for forty years superintended the cultivation of considerable pieces of 

 ground on the banks of the Saskatchewan, that during the whole of that period ho 

 never saw an earthworm turned up." (Fauna Kor. Amer., p. 201. footnote. ) 



'Trans. Royal Soc. of Canada, I, sec. 4, p. 1.57. 



*Long's Exped. to the Rocky Mts., I, 182:3, p. 369. 



