OUR FOUR-FOOTED NEIGHBORS. 315 



feet, while turned outward and upward instead of down- 

 ward, shovel their way through the grass into the turf. In 

 less than half a minute he would nearly bury himself from 

 view. Then by the tail I would draw him forth, and see 

 him repeat the attempt. He did not look or feel about for 

 a hole or for a soft place, but assaulted the turf wherever 

 he touched it, his slender, sensitive nose feeling the way, 

 and his huge, fleshy hands opening the passage. He was 

 indeed a giant in these members ; they were to him what 

 the wings of a bird are to the bird ; all his powers and 

 speed lay here ; his hind legs were small and feeble, and 

 often trailed behind him, as if helpless or broken. 



3. Fancy a race of savages by some peculiar manual oc- 

 cupation developing an enormous hand — a hand as long and 

 broad as a scoop-shovel, usurping the wrist and the forearm, 

 with the legs and feet proportionately small, and you have 

 a type of the mole. This creature was a cripple at the 

 surface, but a most successful traveler a few inches below. 

 His fur was like silk plush, finer and softer than that of 

 any other creature known to me, excepting, perhaps, the bat. 

 Why should these creatures of darkness have such delicate 

 vestments ? Probably because they are creatures of dark- 

 ness. The owl is softer clad than the hawk, the hare than 

 the squirrel, the moth than the butterfly. 



4. I looked in vain for the mole's eyes. I blew open 

 the fur and explored the place with the point of a pin, but 

 no eyes, or semblance to eyes, could I find, and I began to 

 think that Aristotle was right in saying the mole is blind. 

 Then I dispatched him and stripped off his skin, and the 

 eyes were revealed — two minute black specks, that adhered 

 to the tissues of the head after the skin was removed. It 

 was only by the aid of a pocket-glass that I was able to de- 

 termine that they really were eyes. There was no eye- 

 socket, and I wondered that they had not come away with 

 the skin. Probably the only use the mole has for eyes is 



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