MOLE. 135 



on the other hand, these prejudiced judges allow nothing 

 for the benefit which arises from the destruction of in- 

 numerable worms, and of insects, both in the larva and 

 perfect state : this advantage is in fact denied by De 

 Vaux, who declares that the Mole feeds only on the 

 most harmless of these animals, the earth-worm, and that 

 it refuses those which are injurious to mankind. Its 

 more benevolent advocates, on the other hand, contend 

 not only that the injury which it perpetrates is slight, 

 but that it is more than counterbalanced by the benefit 

 which it produces by turning up and lightening the soil, 

 and especially by its immense destruction of earth-worms, 

 and many other noxious animals which inhabit the 

 superficial layer of the ground, and occasion great injury 

 to the roots of grass, corn, and many other plants. If 

 we examine the real nature and degree of its injuries on 

 the one side, and its utility on the other, we shall pro- 

 bably find that both parties are erroneous. The fact of 

 its devastations cannot be denied — it is onlj' in the de- 

 gree and extent of them that the estimation is incorrect ; 

 and whilst its utility in clearing the ground of worms 

 and similar causes of injury must also be allowed, it can 

 scarcely be sustained that the lightening of the soil by 

 the turning up of its hillocks is, at most, more than a 

 very equivocal source of advantage. 



Instances are not wanting of inundations produced by 

 the burrowing of Moles through dams and dykes ; but it 

 would be too much to wage war with a whole race for 

 an accidental transgression of this kind by a few indivi- 

 duals. Nor is it much to the purpose to urge the 

 indirect injury which the Mole produces by forming 

 habitations for different species of Field Mice, which 

 often succeed to its deserted excavations. It is true that 

 the new occupants are thus saved the labour of forming 



