GOLDEN MOLE OF SOUTH AFRICA 



the surface during the night and migrates to a 

 locality more fertile in worms and grubs. By- 

 observing the work of the Mole for a few nights, 

 the main burrow can be detected. When this is 

 located and a special mole-trap is carefully set in 

 it, the owner of the burrow usually falls a victim. 

 When the ancestors of Moles began to pursue 

 their prey, and escape from their enemies by burrow- 

 ing underground, their eyes became modified, and 

 as these were of no practical utihty to an animal 

 living in almost perpetual darkness, they almost 

 disappeared, and but the tiniest vestiges now remain. 

 It is a law of the Creator that if an organ or any 

 part of a living creature is not regularly exercised 

 it, in course of time, becomes rudimentary, and 

 eventually disappears. The human body itself is 

 a museum of relics of organs, muscles, and nerves 

 which ages ago were in the fullest vigour, but 

 which to-day are in an atrophied condition. Eyes 

 being of no value to the Mole in its quest for 

 food, avoidance of enemies, or seeking a mate, its 

 sense of smell has been developed to an unusual 

 degree of excellence. So highly sensitive 'are its 

 olfactory organs that the Mole in its burrow under- 

 ground can detect the presence of an insect within 

 a radius of a yard or more. This wonderfully acute 

 sense of smell enables the Mole to dig a hole straight 

 to its intended prey, instead of expending a vast 

 amount of energy in tunnelling at random in the 

 soil. When plants are growing in rows, it will 



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