126 IN SPRING. 



openings, circular in outline, could be seen, and 

 through some of these the water slowly trickled. 

 I found a single mole-cricket, and attribute to it 

 and others of its kind these little tunnels. Cer- 

 tainly more persistent burrowers do not exist, 

 and I have known them to cause mischief to 

 a mill-dam which was attributed to musk-rats. 

 " They are," says Prof. Riley, " the true moles 

 of the insect world, and make tortuous galleries, 

 destroying everything that comes in their way, 

 cutting through roots, and eating the fine under- 

 ground twigs, as well as the worms and grubs, 

 which they meet with during their burrowings." 

 A volume would not suffice to enumerate the 

 invertebrate or insect-like life that lived in this 

 dark passage-way beneath the sod ; nor do we 

 wonder at finding such low forms groping in ut- 

 ter darkness ; but why higher animals that are 

 found, and far more frequently, in the open air 

 and sunlit waters should delight to crowd these 

 same gloomy quarters, is a problem not so easily 

 solved. We are left to conjecture, and invariably 

 do so, and are often overwhelmed when an army 

 of objections confront our theories. Notwith- 

 standing this, there is a pleasure in reopening an 

 obliterated ditch, in letting in the light upon a 

 hidden highway, for by so doing we also let in 

 light upon ourselves, seeing with clearer vision 

 the wonderful world about us. 



