Penfyhania, Philadelphia, 191 



These walks are inhabited by a kind of 

 mole,* which I intend to defcribe more 

 accurately in another work. Their food is 

 commonly roots : I have obferved the fol- 

 lowing qualities in one which was caught. 

 It had greater ftiffnefs and ftrength in its 

 legs, than I ever obferved in other animals 

 in proportion to their fize. Whenever it 

 intended to dig, it held its legs obliquely, 

 like oars. I laid my handkerchief before 

 it, and it began to ftir in it with the fnout, 

 and taking away the handkerchief to fee 

 what it had done to it, I found that in the 

 fpace of a minute it had made it full of 

 holes, and it looked as if it had been pierc- 

 ed very much by an awl. I was obliged to 

 put fome books on the cover of the box in 

 which I kept this animal, or elfe it was 

 flung off immediately. It was very irafci- 

 ble, and would bite great holes into any 

 thing that was put in its way; I held a 

 fteel pen-cafe to it, it at iirft bit at it 

 with great violence, but having felt its 

 hardnefs, it would not venture again to bite 

 at any thing. Thefe moles do not make 

 fuch hills as the European ones, but only 

 fuch walks as I have already defcribed. 



O^ober 



* This animal is probably the Sorex criJJatus of Dr. Lipnaus^ 

 who fays it is like the mole and lives in Penjylvania. F, 



