Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvii. (1903), No. 4. 31 



individual mole in question. He has this very day, and 

 not an hour ago, told me, that he recollects the circum- 

 stances that attended its death, more perfectly than many 

 thousand things that have happened to him since. 



" It was in the year 1785, within a day or two of the 

 summer solstice, on a calm, mild evening, between nine 

 and ten o'clock, when the surface of the lake was as 

 smooth as a mirror, he, and another of the men above- 

 mentioned, had rowed about fifty yards from the island 

 towards the mainland, when they observed the creature 

 steering its course from the mainland towards the island, 

 and approaching to their boat. The gardener took off 

 one of the oars, arrested the poor little voyager on its 

 passage, struck it with the oar, killed it with the stroke, 

 took it up, and handed it to his companion in the boat. 

 Next day they shewed it to the other man, when all three 

 became, for the first time, converts to the belief, that 

 moles could swim. The animal was killed about 100 

 yards from the mainland, and about 50 yards from the 

 island. 



"Previous to this interesting catastrophe, molecasts 

 had been observed on the island, and the people were at 

 a loss to account for them. I have myself repeatedly 

 observed them there ; and it is consistent with my own 

 personal knowledge, that two moles have been trapped 

 on the island within the last two years, one by our mole- 

 catcher, and another by a son of the gardener. 



" The island, since the commencement of my incum- 

 bency here, has been frequently overflown. I remember, 

 one year, the whole surface of the island lay, for nearly 

 twenty-four hours, under water, from one foot to eighteen 

 inches in depth. Whether the whole race of moles then 

 existing on the island might have shared the fate of the 

 antediluvians, or not, I cannot tell. It is not unlikely 



