SMALL QUADRUPEDS. 



CHAPTER XLII. 



THE Mole is by no means confined to animal food. A 

 peasant in the hill district showed me a store of 

 turnips partially destroyed, as he said, by Moles. 

 They will eat potatoes, and, Buffon says, also acorns. 



It is marvellous that these subterranean animals 

 can survive the frequent irrigation which must fill 

 their burrows with water. The fields are often 

 drenched for many successive days and nights, and so 

 skilful are these people in the art of swamping the 

 land, that they will leave no dry spot anywhere, how- 

 ever much the ground may rise and fall. This artificial 

 deluge is a serious drawback to the Summer resorts in 

 the beautiful Vesubia valley ; and I believe it is the 

 main cause of the cretinous, goitrous, and unhealthy 

 condition of the inhabitants. 



It is well known that Moles are able to swim ; 

 but swimming would not help them very much. An 

 English naturalist states that to avoid drowning they 

 will even climb up into trees. A " Moldiwarp" among 

 the foliage of an elm would surely be ill at ease (like 

 a lawyer in heaven !). The front paws of a Mole seem 

 badly adapted for climbing, but the instinct of self- 

 preservation will sometimes compel animals to do 

 things which one would not think possible. An 

 earthworm is a very unlikely creature to go up a tree, 



