24 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



some contemplated acts of cruelty toward worms by saying that 

 they were already in misery under the stones, and therefore that 

 a little more pain would not be of much consequence to them. 



"We all know that the Mole burrows under the ground, and 

 that it raises those little hillocks with which we are so familiar ; 

 but we do not generally know the extent or variety of its tun- 

 nels, or that the animal works upon a regular system, and does 

 not burrow here and there at random. How it manages to form 

 its burrows in such admirably straight lines is not an easy prob- 

 lem, because it is always in black darkness, and we know of noth- 

 ing which can act as a guide to the animal. As for ourselves 

 and other eye-possessing animals, to walk in a straight line with 

 closed eyelids is almost an impossibility, and every swimmer 

 knows the difficulty of keeping a straight course under water, 

 even with the use of his eyes. 



The ordinary mole-hills, which are so plentiful in our fields, 

 present nothing particularly worthy of notice. They are the 

 shafts through which the quadrupedal miner ejects the materials 

 which it has scooped out, as it drives its many tunnels through 

 the soil, and if they be carefully opened after the rain has con- 

 solidated the heap of loose material, nothing more will be discov- 

 ered than a simple hole leading into the tunnel. But let us strike 

 into one of the large tunnels, as any mole-catcher will teach us, 

 and follow it up until we come to the real abode of the animal. 



A section of this extraordinary habitation is given in the illus- 

 tration. The hill under which this domicile is hidden is of con- 

 siderable size, but is not very conspicuous, because it is always 

 placed under the shelter of a tree, a shrub, or a suitable bank, 

 and would not be discovered but by a practiced eye. The sub- 

 terraneous abode within the hillock is so remarkable that it in- 

 voluntarily reminds the observer of the well-known maze, with 

 which the earliest years of youth have been puzzled throughout 

 many successive generations. 



The central apartment, or keep, if we so term it, is a nearly 

 spherical chamber, the roof of which is nearly on a level with 

 the earth around the hill, and therefore situated at a considerable 

 depth from the apex of the heap. Around this keep are driven 

 two circular passages or galleries, one just level with the ceiling 

 and the other at some height above. The upper circle is much 

 smaller than the lower. Five short descending passages connect 



