WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



but the others, especially in damp weather, 

 are so near the top of the ground that you 

 can open them up by running your finger 

 along under the grass. Once made they may 

 never be revisited, for they do not lead any- 

 where, and were made only to find earth-worms. 

 When one reflects on the work done in this way 

 by a mole in the course of twenty-four hours, we 

 get some idea of its great strength and activity, 

 and no longer wonder at the amount of food 

 it needs and eats. It can lift many times its 

 own weight of soil, and I have seen one push 

 out of place on a smooth surface a nine-pound 

 brick. As the animal's weight was three ounces, 

 this is as if a man whose weight was twelve stone 

 moved an object 3 tons 12 cwt. ! What weak 

 little creatures we are compared with a mole ! 

 No wonder it can heave up soil so easily, and 

 that it is quite difficult to hold one in your 

 hand. A mole's time is spent in rushing about 

 its tunnels (for it can travel amazingly fast 

 underground, and, however awkward it may 

 appear on the surface, is neither clumsy or 

 slow below ground) in search of food, and in 

 short spells of sleep in its warm fortress. 

 Judging from the captive moles I have watched, 

 it does not rest, as a rule, for more than two 

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