THE COMMON MOLE. 43 



superior maxillary nerve. It is very certain that the mole pos- 

 sesses some of the senses acutely enough ; for if a person 

 approaches one which happens to be out of the ground, it will 

 escape, with astonishing rapidity, beneath the surface, either by 

 burrowing a hole, or entering one already made."* 



Its sense of smelling is also acute, which is one reason why 

 this animal is not very easily taken in some traps. 



" Within the last thirty years," says Mr. Samuel Jackson, of 

 Winsford, in Cheshire, " I have read several articles professing 

 to be descriptions of the mole, but each of them has been erro- 

 neous and defective ; and having been trained to the business of 

 a mole-catcher from my youth, and having followed that occu- 

 pation for about thirty-five years, in which time I have decoyed 

 and killed from 40,000 to 50,000 of these creatures, perhaps it 

 will not be considered vanity in me if I attempt to describe the 

 habits of this little miner. The mole dwells in runs or burrows, 

 excavated with wonderful skill, many rods in length, and some 

 parts of them only a few inches below the surface of the earth ; 

 while others are some yards deep. It will make several yards of 

 these runs in a day $ and, in some lands, will drive the soil 

 before it by small portions, to a length of from three to six 

 yards, before it reaches the place where it throws up the hillock. 

 When it thinks it too far to take the soil to the last hillock, it 

 works another perpendicular opening to the surface, out of 

 which it throws another heap. This is the case when the mole is 

 making his deep runs. In these excavations it will travel at a 

 wonderful speed. Even the weasel, which is a great enemy to 

 the mole, cannot keep up with it 5 though, on the surface of the 

 earth, it would perhaps travel four rods before the mole could 

 travel one. I have frequently observed, in the bottom of these 

 runs, a perpendicular hole or well, at which the mole probably 

 drinks. Some of them are of considerable depth, and apparently 

 dry j but, not being able to see the bottom, I have dropped a 

 little earth into the well, and by this means perceived that it 

 contained water. Down these the mole can safely travel and 

 * Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 106. 



