32 



animal life passed under the snow, which had covered the space 

 for many months. The whole area was scored with tracks, appar- 

 ently of mice ; and the fibrous roots of the heath were gnawed 

 asunder in every direction. By what species this had been 

 accomplished, puzzled me greatly ; nor was the wonder diminished 

 by the fact that the altitude of the place was fully 2000 feet above 

 sea level. 



Of Rats, both the common species and the Water Rat [Vole] are 

 not unfrequent; the latter, however, confined to the edges of brooks 

 and swampy spots. I have heard many a person who passed as 

 an authority among his friends, maintain that the water-vole is 

 destructive to fish, and that he is generally carnivorous. This is 

 not so. Any angler may soon satisfy himself on that head. He 

 has only carefully to observe one of these creatures in his usual 

 haunts, to be convinced that he is a strict vegetarian, and moreover 

 an Epicurean in his tastes, selecting only the freshest shoots of 

 willows, and the sprouts of sedges, reeds, or canary grass. Should 

 you attempt the introduction of any fresh plant, by transplanting 

 the same within his beat, he is almost certain to pay it most 

 annoying attention, by nibbling it through at the earliest oppor- 

 tunity. Several experiments of mine in this direction have been 

 foiled by his pertinacity. 



Of well known animals like the Hare and the Rabbit, no detailed 

 remarks are called foi. I will therefore pass them over by noting 

 that within my recollection the Hare has steadily and sensibly 

 decreased in numbers ; while the Rabbit has increased everywhere, 

 and is now in some districts so abundant as to be a formidable 

 nuisance to the agriculturist. 



Persecuted as the Mole is in many quarters, he yet appears to 

 retain his ground; and I imagine that the farmer's absurd prejudices 

 against the "mowdie-warp" are less virulent than they once were. 

 Professional molecatcheis are yet in our midst, though perhaps 

 their popularity has diminished since the close of last century, 

 when Messrs. Bailey and Culley, in their Report on the Agriculture 

 of Cumberland and Westmorland, found only two things whereon 

 to compliment our farmers, to wit — the use of light single-horse 



