THE COMMOJf MOLE, 397 



frequently the appearance of fresh Mole-casts or hills. 

 I for some time took them for those of the Wa- 

 ter-mouse ; and one day asked the gardener if it was 

 so. No, he said, it was the Mole; and that he had 

 caught one or two lately. Five or six years ago he 

 caught two in traps ; and for two years after this he 

 had ohserved none. But about four years ago, coming 

 ashore one summer's evening in the dusk, he and an- 

 other person (Lord Airly's butler) saw, at a short 

 distance, upon the smooth water, some animal pad- 

 dling to, and not far from, the island. They soon 

 closed with this feeble passenger: and found it to 

 be our Common Mole ; led by a most astonish- 

 ing instinct, from the nearest point of land (the 

 Castle-hill), to take possession of this desert is- 

 land. — It had been, at the time of my visit, for 

 the space of two years quite free from any subter- 

 raneous inhabitant ; but the Mole has, for more than 

 a year past, made its appearance again, and its ope- 

 rations I have since been witness to." — .The depth of 

 water in this lake is seldom less, either in symmer or 

 winter, than six feet in the shallowest and from thirty 

 to forty in the deepest parts. 



People in general are not aware of the great mis- 

 chief occasioned in tields and garden^ by these ani- 

 mals. We are, however, informed by Pvl. de Buffon, 

 that in the year 1740 he planted about sixteen acres 

 of land with acorns, the greater part of which was in 

 a very short time carried away by the Moles to their 

 subterraneous retreats. In many of these were found 

 half a buihel, and in some even a bushel. Button, 

 after this circumstance, caused a great number of 



