Romancing about the Mole. 



125 



number. In the latest edition of Bell are given both 

 horizontal and vertical sections of this remarkable strong- 

 hold, showing its central hollow globe — the reposing 

 place, as said, of the animal — with two parallel circular 

 galleries, above and below, between which there are five 

 passages of communication, and then, leading off from 

 the lower one, nine other subterranean tunnels, in almost 



mole's palace. 



regular radiation as the spokes of a wheel. Tet, for this 

 wonderfully curious and symmetrical structure, so minutely 

 described and delineated — in all seriousness, too — I do 

 not believe there was ever an original. On the contrary, 

 it seems certain that the whole thing is the fanciful con- 

 ception of a Frenchman, Henri le Court, endorsed by 

 Geoffrey St. Hilaire. To get at the truth and root of the 



