520 COMMON MOLE. 



are said to be seen swimming in great numbers, 

 and using every effort to obtain a more elevated 

 situation ; but a great many of them perish on 

 such occasions, as well as the young, which re- 

 main in their holes. 



A remarkable instance of the power which the 

 Mole sometimes exerts in swimming, is given in 

 the third volume of the Transactions of the Lin- 

 naean Society, one having been seen swimming 

 towards a small island in the middle of the Loch 

 of Clunie, in Scotland, at the distance of 1 80 yards 

 from land. 



Linnaeus, in the twelfth edition of the Systema 

 Naturae, affirms that the Mole hybernates, or 

 passes the winter in a state of torpidity; and the 

 same observation is repeated in the Gmelinian 

 edition of that work. This, however, is flatly 

 contradicted by the Count de Buffon, who ob- 

 serves, that the Mole sleeps so little in winter, 

 that she raises the earth in the same manner as 

 in summer; and that the country people remark 

 that the thaw approaches, because the moles make 

 their hills. They endeavour to get into warm 

 grounds, gardens, &c. during this season more 

 than at others. 



This animal is said to be unknown in Ireland. 

 In Siberia it arrives at a larger size than in 

 Europe. The fur is so soft and beautiful, that it 

 would make the most elegant articles of dress, did 

 not the difficulty of curing and dressing the skin 

 deter from experiments of this nature. 



