78 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



they have to go a distance of three or four miles 

 for a supply. Yet here on the highest point, nearly 

 a thousand feet above the flat country of the weald, 

 the nearest place where it would be possible for them 

 to obtain water, with nothing but the thin crust of 

 soil above the hard chalk for them to Uve and move 

 in, the moles were most abundant and active during 

 the hot dry summer months. 



One hot July morning, about ten o'clock, I was 

 standing on Ditchling Hill looking at the hundreds 

 of fresh mounds which the moles had been throwing: 

 up, and finding that they were still at work, it sud- 

 denly struck me that it would be a good plan to cap- 

 ture one of the industrious little beggars to ask him 

 to tell me the secret of his presence in that waterless 

 land. It is always best to go to the fountain-head for 

 information. After a little watching I detected a 

 movement in the loose earth in the last mound of a 

 long row of hills marking the course of a new run. 

 Placing myself over the mound I waited till it stirred 

 again, then plunged my hand into the loose earth and 

 grabbed at the little beast, but he slipped like quick- 

 silver out of my hand and was gone. I very soon 

 found another mole at work throwing up earth a foot 

 or so in advance of a chain of seventeen hills of fresh 

 dark mould all in a line. Altering my simple tactics, 

 I thrust the point of my stick into the sod a few 

 inches back from the point where he was working, 

 and so cut off his retreat, and then caught and pulled 



