70 Nn/es and Coinmcufs. 



excellent illustrations accompany the paper, one of which is 

 here shown, through the kindness of Mr. Harry Speight. It 

 illustrates one of the examples of cup and ring- markings, the 

 precise sigfnificance of which may never be known. Probably 

 the least satisfactory of all the evidences of earl}- man are 

 the pit dwellings. Some of the shallow pits on the moors, 

 which were thought to be ancient habitations, eventually proved 

 to be old coal working's, and it seems not improbable that the 

 accepted pit dwellings may be otherwise accounted for. At any 

 rate a little more evidence v/ill be required than mere hollows 

 on a moor before archeeologists will accept them as British 

 dwelling-s. In East Yorkshire Mr. Mortimer has shown that 

 some so-called pit dwellings are really old iron-stone workings, 

 etc., and in one instance he demonstrated that a series of pits 

 were really the early stages of an entrenchment which had never 

 been completed. 



MOLES 

 Possibly on account of the difficulty of observation, the 

 habits of the Mole have not been much studied by naturalists. 

 Between the times of Aristotle and Le Court, who ' set up 

 as a scientific mole-catcher in France about 179S,' little atten- 

 tion appears to have been paid to this animal. Le Court 

 imparted his knowledge to Cadet de Vaux, who in 1803 

 published a small work on the subject, and these observations, 

 particularly the more imaginative parts, have been copied and 

 handed down by almost every subsequent writer. Mr. Lionel 

 E. Adams has recently published ('Manchester Memoirs,' 

 Vol. 47, No. 4, 1903) 'A Contribution to our Knowledge oi 

 the Mole {Talpa europcra)' which contains some very valuable 

 information on the subject. 



AND THEIR FORTRESSES. 



Mr. Adams' method of studying the nature of the mole- 

 hills was to carefully slice away the tops of the mounds with 

 a spade until a run was visible. This was carefulh' followed 

 and opened with the hands till it descended to a deeper level, 

 when further slicing was necessary. As the work progressed 

 plans were carefully made on paper, and whilst the author has 

 secured about a hundred such plans, no two are exactly alike, 

 though naturally they have a certain resemblance to each other. 

 They show very simple and exceedingly complicated fortresses, 

 but not one exactlv resembling the time-honoured figure, 



