108 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



if something was pushing underneath ; and after a 

 while, as he comes to the heap of sand thrown out by 

 the rabbits, a mole emerges, and instantly with a 

 shiver, as it were, of his skin throws off the particles 

 of dust upon his fur as a dog fresh from the water 

 sends a shower from his coat. The summer weather 

 having dried the clay under the meadow turf and 

 made it difficult to work, he has descended into the 

 ditch, beneath which there is still a certain moistness, 

 and where he can easily bore a tunnel. 



It is rather rare to see a mole above ground ; 

 fortunately for him he is of diminutive size, or so 

 glossy a fur would prove his ruin. As it is, every 

 other old pollard willow tree along the hedge is hung 

 with miserable moles, caught in traps, and after death 

 suspended — like criminals swinging on a gibbet — 

 from the end of slender willow boughs. Moles seem 

 to breed in the woods : first perhaps because they are 

 less disturbed there, next because under the trees the 

 earth is usually softer, retains its moisture longer, and 

 is easier to work. From the woods their tracks 

 branch out, ramifying like the roads which lead from 

 a city. They have in addition main arteries of traffic, 

 king's highways, along which they will journey one 

 after the other ; so that the mole-catcher, if he can 

 discover such a road, slaughters many in succession. 



