30 Adams, On the Mole ( Talpa europcea). 



exit, and startled by an apparent and unexpected move- 

 ment, went back again." Blasius (doubtless following 

 Saint-Hilaire) merely says — " We are convinced that he 

 directs his course by power of sight " (p. 1 14). 



I cannot refrain from quoting verbatim an account of 

 a mole which saw an island in a Scotch lake 150 yards 

 distant from the shore, and nearly reached it by 

 swimming ! This account is quoted by the Rev. Dr. 

 Grierson, already mentioned, in the following letter, of 

 whose author Dr. Grierson says, " I beg to copy his 

 ipsisshna verba. Indeed I should not in any other way 

 do justice to the subject." 



"To Dr. Grierson. 



" Manse of Clunie, 25th March, 1822. 

 " Dear Sir, 



" I have your favour of the 19th current, and, in 

 reply to your queries respecting the mole mentioned to 

 you by our friend, Dr. Baird, I beg leave to state the 

 following particulars. 



"Though the fact, alluded to by the Principal, did not 

 fall under my own observation (it having happened about 

 two months previous to my coming to reside here) it was 

 repeatedly confirmed to me by the verbal testimony of 

 three honest men, on whose veracity I had no hesitation 

 in relying. They all three saw the mole, handled it, 

 examined its eyes, etc., but did not observe whether it 

 was a male or a female. Two of the men are since dead, the 

 third is still alive, and has been my next-door neighbour 

 for these thirty-seven years past, and had I no other 

 authority but his own for the truth of the fact referred to, 

 I should have regarded it as altogether satisfactory. He 

 has been long settled here as gardener and nurseryman to 

 the Earl of Airly, — has himself been the death of many 

 moles in his day, and was himself the death of the very 



