THE MOLE. 13 



the water, and giving to its strange, and apparently sombre 

 life, a poetry and an interest which we fail to find in the lives of 

 many creatures more riclily endowed with external beauty. 



Let me recommend the reader to procure, or at all events to 

 examine, the skeleton of a Mole, and to note the wonderful 

 structure by wliich such effects are produced. The enormous 

 shoulder-blades, projecting far above the spine, the short, 

 bowed, and powerful bones of the fore limbs, the wide, flattened 

 palms, and the strong, sharp, and curved claws, look almost 

 like a miniature model of some machine invented for the purpose 

 of tearing the stubborn earth. 



See how all the power is thrown into the fore quarters, while 

 the hind quarters are feeble, and, in comparison, conmion-place. 

 See how enormously strong must be the muscles of the neck, 

 where the ligament (popularly called the paxwax) is hardened 

 into bone. The nose, too, is furnished with an accessory bone, 

 which projects into the snout, and gives it that combined strength 

 and mobility which distinguishes the creature. Immediately 

 after death the snout of the Mole is flexible and elastic, spring- 

 ing back when bent, as if cut from solid India-rubber. But in 

 a very few hours it becomes stiff, xinsightly, and shrivelled, and 

 loses all its plump rotundity. Once lost, this is never restored. 

 You may immerse the Mole in water as long as you like, but as 

 the shrivelling is more from within than without, the moisture 

 fails to penetrate the tissues, and to enable them to regain their 

 pristine contour. As to stuffed specimens, I never yet saw one 

 in a museum that gave much idea of the animal, and the snout 

 in particular, is always crumpled, black, and withered. 



In order to give greater spread and power to the fore paws, 

 there is an accessory bone shaped something like a sickle, pro- 

 jecting from the carpus, and it will be found that in this extra- 

 ordinary animal still exist certain remarkable peculiarities of 

 structure, which are seen in no other living form, but have been 

 discovered in the fossil skeletons of animals long extinct. 



I have given much space to the Mole on account of its many 

 claims to our notice. Had the creature been a rare and costly 

 inhabitant of the tropics, how deep would have been the interest 

 which it excited. How the scientific world would have crowded 

 to see the mai-vellous structure of a skeleton wherein are several 

 accessory bones, and which exhibits peculiarities hitherto found 



