34 THE MOLE. 



The mole is not often seen alive ; and few who see 

 it suspended among the branches by the professional 

 killer would form any conception of the real character 

 of this subterranean animal. 



Meek and quiet as the mole looks, it is one of the 

 fiercest, if not the very fiercest of animals ; it 

 labours, eats, fights, and loves as if animated by one 

 of the furies, or rather by all of them together. 



MOLE. 



Intervals of profound rest alternate with savage 

 action ; and according to the accounts of country 

 folks near Oxford, it works and rests at regular in- 

 tervals of three hours each. 



Useful as these creatures are as subsoil drain- 

 makers, they sometimes increase to an inconvenient 

 extent, and then the professed mole-catcher comes 

 into practice, and destroys the moles with an appa- 

 ratus apparently inadequate to such a purpose. But 

 the mole is easily killed, and pressure he cannot sur- 

 vive; so the traps are formed for the purpose of 

 squeezing the mole, not of smashing or strangling 

 him. 



The mole-catchers are in the habit of suspending 



