The sportsman in retirement. 385 



and it lias been this incident tliat led casual 

 observers into the mistake. Carp spawn on the 

 surface weeds, and so do tench, but if you put 

 them to it, the tench wdll seek the grass that 

 is pendent in the waters. 



Now there are very few people who know why 

 the mole makes so many hills ; but if they will 

 take the trouble to beat about as many mole- 

 hills as I have done,— it is excellent exercise for 

 the arms, the biceps muscle, and the chest, when 

 no other exercise is at hand, — they will have ocular 

 demonstration of the following fact. The mole 

 will go on making his ^^run," and move an 

 infinity of mould from side to side, Avith those 

 wondrously adapted claws of Jiis, without being 

 necessitated to lift it to the surfece. In his bur- 

 rowing progress, however, he is often stopped by 

 a stone ; of this impediment he has but one way 

 of ridding himself, and that is to get it to the 

 surface. In beating the molediills about in one 

 field, this circumstance will very often be found to 

 occur, but not always; and in nine cases out of 

 ten, or thereabout Sj a stone will be found in every 

 molehill, not quite on the top of the molehill, but 

 above the middle of it, and this in fields where 



