Clifton College Scientific Society. 13 



worms and insects are mostly found there. It is interestinoj, on 

 the other hand, to observe, that when the run of a mole leads 

 under a road or any other hard surface, you invariably find that 

 it is as much as three or four feet deep. 



Sometimes a mole will make a second run to facilitate the 

 carrying on of its operations, and I believe that sometimes several 

 moles use one road in common, though this is not often the case. 

 The direction of the passages leading from the centre is generally 

 slightly inclined downwards. As I have now given you a brief 

 account of the fortress and hunting-grounds of this wonderful 

 little creature, which can almost rival the more celebrated beaver 

 in architecture, I will proceed to describe the animal itself 



At first sight one might very naturally wonder how so dull and 

 clumsy-looking an animal could lead such a strange and laborious 

 life, and perhaps a feeling of pity would almost arise for its seeming 

 helplessness. But I assure you this is not at all needful, for the 

 mole is one of the most ferocious of all animals, considering its size. 

 It can fight with inconceivable ferocity, and is excessively agile 

 when in its element, while it seems to be endowed with a never- 

 ceasing activity. The following I take from the Eev. J. Gr. 

 Wood's work, already referred to : — ' A battle between two moles 

 is as tremendous as one between two lions, if not more so, because 

 the mole is more courageous than the lion, and, relatively speak- 

 ing, is far more powerful, and armed with weapons more destruc- 

 tive. Magnify the mole to the size of the lion, and you will 

 have a beast more terrible than the world has yet seen. Though 

 nearly blind, and therefore incapable of following prey by sight, 

 it would be active beyond conception, springing this way and 

 that as it goes along, so as to cover a large amount of space, 

 leaping with lightning quickness upon any animal which it meets, 

 rending it to pieces in a moment, thrusting its bloodthirsty snout 

 into the body of its victim, eating the still warm and bleeding 

 flesh, and instantly searching for fresh prey.' But remove the 

 mole out of its proper sphere, and it becomes at once a most 

 inactive, stupid-looking animal. 



The mole generally works for food about two hours in the 

 morning and as many in the evening, and I believe it always 

 rests in the middle of the day. 



If a mole, soon after it has been captured, be placed on the 

 earth, burrowing is immediately commenced with inconceivable 

 rapidity, so that in fact the earth seems almost to yield to its 

 pressure. An observation on the rapidity of the mole's progress 

 underground was made by a Frenchman, Le Court, to whom we 

 are indebted for a monograph on this very interesting animal. 

 He placed some little twigs at intervals in the run of a mole, and 



