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road at various distances from the fortress. Such is a very hasty 
description of this most singular structure; and nothing surely can 
be imagined more admirably calculated to ensure the security or the 
retreat of the inhabitant, than such an arrangement of internal 
routes of communication as this. The chamber communicating 
beneath directly with the road, and above with the upper gallery— 
this with the lower by five passages, and the latter again with the 
road by no less than nine—exhibit altogether a complication of 
architecture which may rival the more celebrated erections of the 
beaver.” So says Mr. Bell, in whose expressive and clear words I 
have preferred to describe this interesting portion ot my subject. 
It is however to the indefatigable labours of two French natu- 
ralists that we are indebted for our chief acquaintance with the 
economy and habits of the mole, and especially of its excavations, 
to M. Cadet de Vaux, who devoted a great deal of time to this 
subject, and to M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who also prosecuted very 
careful researches on the point; and it was not until after a long. 
series of very minute observations and experiments, carried on some- 
times together and sometimes independently of one another, that 
_ these eminent and very patient naturalists arrived at the desired 
results, and satisfied themselves that they had mastered the somewhat 
complicated arrangement of the excavated galleries and chamber of 
the mole’s fortress. . 
_ Of the nest or nursery of the mole, I have little to add beyond the 
' fact that it is always quite distinct from the fortress, and generally 
_ placed at a considerable distance from it, (as a skilful general would 
naturally desire to remove the female and infantine portion of the 
community during the time of siege to a place of security apart 
from the din of war,) for the males are remarkably pugnacious, and 
battles, which terminate in the death of one at least of the combat- 
ants, are of very frequent occurrence. The nest has no claim to 
elaborate design : it is but an excavated chamber, warmly lined with 
5 fine grass, and appears to be placed in a remote portion of the domain, 
where it may have the best chance of escaping discovery from any 
prowling marauder in the form of a rat, weasel, or other murderous 
