28 HOMES 'WITHOUT HANDS. 



Such a creature would, without the least hesitation, devour a 

 serpent twenty feet in length, and so terrible would be its vorac- 

 ity, that it would eat twenty or thirty of such snakes in the 

 course of a day. With one grasp of its teeth and one stroke of 

 its claws it could tear an ox asunder ; and if it should happen to 

 enter a fold of sheep or an inclosure of cattle, it would kill them 

 all for the mere lust of slaughter. Let, then, two of such animals 

 meet in combat, and how terrific would be the battle. Fear is 

 a feeling of which a Mole seems to be unconscious ; and when 

 fighting with one of his own species, he gives his whole energies 

 to the destruction of his opponent, without seeming to heed the 

 injuries which are inflicted upon himself. 



From the foregoing sketch the reader will be able to estimate 

 the extraordinary energies of this animal, as well as the wonder- 

 ful instincts with which it is endowed. 



What a surprising effort of intuitive skill is shown in the fort- 

 ress, with its central chamber and the circular galleries that sur- 

 round and defend it. How enormous is the space of ground 

 which a single Mole covers with its network of roads and gal- 

 leries, driven in every direction from the fortress, and sunk at 

 various depths, according to the state of the ground and the po- 

 sition of the worms. Sometimes it burrows along just at the 

 surface of the ground, its back visible as it passes along, and so 

 making a shallow trench rather than a tunnel. Sometimes, as in 

 very dry weather, it is obliged to dive deeply into the earth be- 

 fore it can find the worms, which detest drought, and can not ex- 

 ist but in damp situations. 



How marvelous is the amount of muscular power that is con- 

 centrated into so small a space. Every one who has worked at 

 digging a pit is well aware of the labor involved in his undertak- 

 ing, even with the aid of crowbar, pickaxe, and spade. If the 

 reader should happen to excavate a cubic yard of earth, he will 

 know by experience the amount of muscular exertion that is re- 

 quired for the task, and will be the better able to appreciate the 

 tremendous powers of the Mole, which is able to drive its tun- 

 nels so rapidly through the solid earth, and to throw up at short 

 intervals those well-known mole-hills, which contain as much 

 earth as would make a heap twelve feet in height and twenty 

 feet in diameter, were a man to be the workman instead of the 

 Mole. 



On looking over the list of burrowing mammalia, the observer 



