48 RAMBLES OF 



replaced a second time, but when broken up a third 

 time, it was left in ruins.) As twelve o'clock ap- 

 proached, my solicitude to discover the little miner 

 increased to a considerable degree : previous obser- 

 vation led me to believe that about that time his 

 presence was to be expected. I had trodden down 

 the gallery for some inches in a convenient place, 

 and stood close by, in vigilant expectation. My 

 wishes were speedily gratified : in a short time the 

 flattened gallery began at one end to be raised to its 

 former convexity, and the animal rapidly advanced. 

 With a beating heart, I thrust the knife-blade down 

 by the side of the rising earth, and quickly turned 

 it over to one side, throwing my prize fairly into the 

 sunshine. For an instant, he seemed motionless 

 from surprise, when I caught and imprisoned him 

 in my hat. It would be vain for me to attempt a 

 description of my pleasure in having thus succeeded, 

 small as was my conquest. I was delighted with the 

 beauty of my captive's fur; with the admirable 

 adaptation of his diggers, or broad rose-tinted hands; 

 the wonderful strength of his fore-limbs, and the 

 peculiar suitableness of his head and neck to the 

 kind of life the Author of nature had designed him 

 for. It was the shrew-mole, or scalops canadensis, 

 whose history and peculiarities of structure are 

 minutely related in the first volume of Grodman's 

 American Natural History. All my researches 

 never enabled me to discover a nest, female, or 

 young one of this species. All I ever caught 

 were males, though this most probably was a mere 



