24 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



THE HOME OF THE MOLE. 



HOW IT IS BUILT. 



The home of the mole is very strangely contrived, 

 and knowing as little as we do of his life underground 

 is unaccountable. Under the top and center of the 

 molehill, so deeply buried as to be on a level with 

 the earth's surface, about the hill is a hollow like 

 the inside of a globe. This spherical apartment is 

 girt about with two circular tunnels : one, in the 

 accompanying illustration, above the apartment ; and 

 the other is level with the ceiling. From this loAver 

 circular gallery ascend five passages at equal dis- 

 tances apart to the upper one, and from this again 

 descend three short passages opening into the ceiling 

 of the central spherical apartment. In getting into 

 this last-named chamber a mole has first to enter the 

 lower circular passageway, ascend to the upper one — 

 which, by the way, is much smaller than the lower — 

 and then again descend before reaching his destina- 

 tion. There is, however, a lower passage that, lead- 

 ing directly from one of the larger highways or tun- 

 nels, descends in a curve, and then ascending opens 

 into the floor of the central chamber. None of the 

 main passages — there are seven or eight of them lead- 

 ing out in different directions from the lower central 

 gallery — ever ojjen upon it opposite one of the en- 

 trances into the upper gallery. 



