ANIMALS. 319 



mixed with a deep purple. Tiiere are sometimes white moles, 

 seen particularly in Poland, rather larger than the former. As 

 their skin is so very soft and beautiful, it is odd that it has not 

 been turned to any advantage. Agricola tells us, that he saw 

 hats made from it, the finest and the most beautiful that could 

 be imagined.* 



• The Zcmni, Blind Rnt of Pennant and Sliaw, to which nuldenstaoiU ap 

 plied the Greek name, Spalax, lias been hitherto referred to the mole. 

 This singular animal attains nearly ten inches in length, and its cyliiKlrica. 

 body is full two inches iu diameter. Its thick head, nearly pyraniidical, 

 nan-ower in front, is terminated by a very hard and strong cartilaginoiis 

 muzzle. The nostrils are roiuid and narrow ; the opening of the mouth is 

 small. The incisive teeth are extremely prominent and strong, those in the 

 lower jaw twice the length of the others ; the under lip is shorter than 

 the upper, and does not cover the teeth. 



Aristotle has observed that externally there are no traces of eyes : if the 

 skin of the head be taken off, a tendinous expansion may be perceived ex. 

 tending over the orbits, immediately under which is a glandulous body, ob- 

 long, a little flatted, toward the middle of which is a black spot representing 

 the globe of the eye, and which appears perfectly well organized, though not 

 half a line in thickness. Nothing in short appears wanting to constitute a 

 perfect eye, but a greater development of parts. Whether the spalax be 

 absolutely blind, or whether it receive any perception of light through the 

 medium of the eye as an organ, does not suflftciently appear by what has 

 hitherto been said by its describers. The presence of what maybe called the 

 vestige of an organ, seems perfectly consistent v\'ith other instances, in 

 which the application of such imperfect organ, is not at all to be traced. 

 On the contrary, it accords with that apparent unwillingness in nature to 

 depait from prescribed laws. The total absence of an accustomed organ is 

 much more anomalous in nature than the complete inutility of an imperfect 

 >ne. So it seems with the spalax, which is not without the vestige of eyes, 

 ■.hough their application as organs of sight seems doubtful. 



The spalax has the organs of hearing in a very perfect state. What is 

 denied on the one hand is prodigally bestowed on the other, and the crea- 

 ture is thereby enabled to preserve its existence. The external ear, indeed, 

 has but a very small outward expansion, but the auditory canal is very large, 

 and the whole organ internally greatly developed. 



The neck of this animal is large, short, and muscular, by which the head 

 is capable of considerable strength considered relatively to its size, and the 

 whole animal takes a cylindrical shape ; the feet are short, armed with 

 roimd trenchant nails, rather larger on the hind feet, than on those before. 



The whole animal is covered with a short soft fiu-, the base of which is 

 blackish ash-colour, and the extremity reddish, whence residts a general 

 tint of yellowish gray. They are sometimes foiuid spotted with white. 



The Greeks, as has been generally assumed, described the mole, a.c^a.'Ka.^ 

 as blind, an error which modern zoologists have piqued themselves in de- 

 tecting. Tlie KffTaXal of the Greeks wa.s, however, doubtless, the animal 

 now under consideration, which was indigenoiLS in their country or around 

 Ihem, whereas the mole was an exotic in Greece, llio Romans may b' ur 

 II. 2 G 



