34 THE AMERICAN GLAZIER. 



found. On previous occasions of a similar nature, and indeed all the 

 year round, every queer thing is at once brought to me not only by ju- 

 veniles, but by others of larger giowth. One of the boys held in his 

 hand a dead rnole, which he had just killed. I did not even touch it at 

 first, not feeling disposed to be annoyed, for not less than fifty were 

 gathered round me, and all evincing the most eager curiosity in a more 

 audible manner than mere looks. A second glance at the animal chang- 

 ed my mind, and I grasped it with intense delight. It was not the com- 

 mon mole, but the strange star nosed or long tailed mole, which occurs 

 in this neighborhood very rarely. Indeed, I had never seen it before, 

 although I recognized it at once, for its characteristics are very striking. 

 It is figured in Godman's Natural History, where there is also a descrip- 

 tion, but I have not tliat work at hand and cannot use it in this brief 

 notice. I soon pointed out its peculiarities, and the adults seeing an 

 excited crowd of boys around me, also drew near, and to satisfy all I 

 was obliged to deliver a short lecture on the star nosed mole. Not a 

 man on the ground had ever seen a specimen before, though some of 

 them had been brought up in the country. I rewarded the captor and 

 bagged the animal. 



This mole differs from the common one in several important respects. 

 Its tail is more than half the length of the body — the head has a slen- 

 der elongated muzzle, terminating in a vertical circular disk of from eigh- 

 teen to twenty subequal cartilaginous fibres. They radiate like a kind 

 of star, but I am not aware of their particular use. 



This mole burrows in moist places near the surface, forming elevated 

 ridges, like the common species, and chambers for rearing its young. — 

 They are most numerous near the borders of streams. When observed 

 in confinement, they continually attempt to hide themselves by digging, 

 and the cariilaginous tendrils around their nose are in perpetual motion. 



HONOR TO WHOM HO-N^OR IS DUE. The American Glazier. 



The introduction of the Mariner's Quadrant into present use forms 

 a chapter in nautical history equally as important as that of the com- 

 pass itself; the one serving as a directory to the seaman in his general 

 course — the other enabling him to follow it with precision. Dr. Ewing, 

 who has been pronounced one of the most learned and acute mathema- 

 ticians this country has produced, says that it is the most useful of all 

 astronomical instruments the world has ever known. Those formerly 

 in use were very defective, and, under most circumstances constituting 

 real danger, were of comparatively little service. The application of a 



