48 THE COMMON MOLE. 



Mr. Henry Turner says, that one morning, as he sat by a 

 river, which runs at the bottom of the Botanic Garden, Bury St. 

 Edmunds, he saw a mole come out of an osier-holt, and run 

 across a grass path, and take to the water j when it was about 

 half across the river, he ran to the edge of the water, and the 

 mole then attempted to dive ; but merely immersed his nose in 

 the water for half a minute, and rapidly gained the shore, and 

 soon disappeared in a hole of the bank. A few mornings after, 

 he saw a mole take to the water as before ; but on this occasion 

 he did riot alarm it, and the mole, therefore, swam so leisurely, 

 that it was nearly four minutes in swimming six yards, and ap- 

 peared as if it rather enjoyed its morning's bathing. An old 

 mole -catcher, on hearing these facts, replied that he had seen 

 them swim across very wide rivers. 



It is a curious fact, that when pasture lands have been freed 

 from the mole, they will not afford so much sustenance for the 

 sheep as they did previously, and fewer sheep, indeed, can be 

 kept upon them. I presume that this is either owing to the 

 growth of the herbage being less rapid and luxuriant then, than 

 when the mole frequently stirred the soil, and eased the spread 

 of the roots; or else from the increase of some herbivorous 

 insects, &c. which the mole used to destroy. Indeed, there are 

 good reasons for suspecting that the mole feeds upon the com- 

 mon slug. It has been observed in Selkirkshire, that where the 

 moles were extirpated upon the Duke of Buccleugh's pasture 

 lands, slugs greatly increased ; and according to Sir Walter 

 Scott, two direful diseases, the pine and foot-rot, ensued, and 

 almost annihilated the cattle on the farms : the tenants of which 

 petitioned for the return of the moles, and a renewal of the 

 breed. Mr. Jesse, also, says he has been " assured that where 

 old mole-hills are most abundant, sheep are generally in a 

 healthy condition, as they feed on the wild thyme and other salu- 

 brious herbs, which grow on these heaps of earth. Where these 

 have been levelled and carried away, the sheep have not thriven 

 so well as they did previously. This fact was confirmed to me 

 by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, who deprecated the practice of 



