68 BRITISH MAMMALS 



constructed by the males, whilst the winding tunnels are 

 made by the female. In the bringing up of these tunnels to 

 the surface the masses of earth that are propelled by the mole's 

 forehead and snout often come out solid like a sausage. In 

 lighter soil the mould is propelled upwards in little jerks. Mr. 

 Adams expresses the wonderment that must have been felt by 

 many observers of the mole at the way in which runs are made 

 through such hard ground as sandstone, ground that the spade 

 penetrates with the greatest difficulty, but through which the 

 mole makes long runs, and turns out heaps of stones, severally 

 weighing as much as 4 oz., the maximum weight of the mole 

 itself. In this hard formation the runs lie as much as a foot 

 beneath the surface, and they are also very wide. In soft soils 

 the runs may be so near to the surface that it not infrequently 

 becomes a mere trough, and the back of the mole may be seen as 

 it passes along. 



The distribution of the mole in our country is signalised, as 

 in the case with so many other mammals, by its complete absence 

 from Ireland. It is found almost universally throughout England 

 and Wales, even to the westernmost extremities of the last- 

 named country. In Scotland its distribution was formerly (in the 

 eighteenth century) confined mainly to the lowlands, but during the 

 last hundred years it has been making its way steadily into the far 

 north and west of that country, reaching even (through the acci- 

 dental intervention of man) into the large islands close to the 

 West Highland coast. It is evidently an instance of a British 

 mammal slowly advancing northwards and westwards after the 

 recovery of these islands from the last Glacial episode. In England, 

 especially in East Anglia, the mole is an ancient inhabitant, its 

 fossil remains dating from at least as far back as the end of the 

 Pliocene period of the Tertiary Epoch. It thus dwelt in South 

 Britain before the advent of man, and before the commencement 

 of the first cold period. The mole as a genus stretches back to a 

 great age in the geological past, our English species on the 

 Continent being found in deposits of the Lower Miocene, while 

 moles a little less differentiated in type go back to the earliest 



