64 THE REASON WIIY : 



" Well said, old Mole, can'st work in the earth. 

 So fast ? a worthy pioneer ! " SIIAKSPKRE. 



193. In what respects is the anatomy of the mole admirably 

 adapted to its mode of life ? 



The animal burrows underground in pursuit of worms, upon 

 which it feeds. Its feet are so many shovels ; they determine the 

 action of rooting in the ground ; and everything about the animal's 

 body agrees with this destination. The cylindrical figure of the 

 mole, as well as its compact form, arising from the terseness of its 

 limbs, proportionably lessens its labour ; because, according to its 

 bulk, it thereby requires the least possible quantity of earth to be 

 removed from its progress. It has nearly the same structure of the 

 face and jaws as a pig, and the same office for them. The nose is 

 sharp, slender, tendinous, strong, with a pair of nerves going down 

 to the end of it. The plush covering which, by the smoothness, 

 closeness, and polish of the short piles that compose it, rejects the 



adhesion of almost every 

 species of earth, defends 

 the animal from cold and 

 wet, and from the im- 

 pediment which it would 

 experience by the mould 

 sticking to its body. 



194. Let us compare for a moment the bats with the moles with reference to their 

 .ocomotion. Both are insectivorous, but how widely different in their conforma- 

 tion ! The bat has to winnow its way through the air : the mole, like the bat, has 

 to re-act against a given medium a very different one, certainly and is endowed 

 with a power of moving through that medium by means of a modification of the 

 locomotive organs beautifully adapted to its density. Instead of the lengthened 

 bones of the fore-arm that so well assist the bat to make its way with outstretched 

 wing through the air, all in this part of the organisation of the mole is short and 

 compact, to enable it to bore through the dense medium where it is to live and 

 move and have its being. The development is all anterior. The fore part of the 

 mole forms an elongated cone ; the posterior part is narrow and Email, and the 

 whole of its proportions are admirably fitted to assist it, so to speak, in flying 

 through the earth. The long and almost round scapula, the expanded humerus, 

 the enormous power, in short, of the anterior extremities, and the gre.it strength 

 and compactness of the fingers, are all fitted for the digging duty they have to do 



