314 



A Plea for the Moles. 



is not, as might well be supposed, that of an elaborate military 

 fortress, nor of a systematically laid-out modern town ; though I 

 would call attention in passing, to its great resemblance in general 

 ground-plan to the city of Carlsrnhe, for some time the capital of 

 the Grand Duchy of Baden, a city laid out designedly in the form 

 of a wheel, with all the principal streets radiating, like spokes, from 

 the palace which occupies the centre. The design however, here, is 

 not that of any civil engineer, nor of any military general : it is a 

 fortress indeed and an encampment, but planned and carried out 

 below the surface of the earth by the despised and persecuted mole. 

 This elaborate fortress is always constructed beneath a mound of 

 more than ordinary dimensions, and " which is always raised in a 

 situation of safety and protection ; either under a bank, against the 

 foundation of a wall, at the root of a tree, or in some similar locality. 

 The earth of which the dome, covering this curious habitation, is 

 formed, is rendered exceedingly strong and solid, by being pressed 

 and beaten by the mole in forming it. It contains a circular gallery 

 within the base, which communicates with a smaller one above, by 

 five nearly equidistant passages ; and the domicile or chamber is 

 placed within the lower and beneath the upper circular gallery, to 

 which last it has access by three similar passages. From the 

 chamber extends another road, the direction of which is at first 

 downwards for several inches : it then rises again to open into the 



Section of Molehill, 



high road of the encampment. From the external circular gallery 

 open about nine other passages, the orifices of which are never formed 

 opposite to those which connect the outer with the inner and upper 

 gallery : these extend to a greater or less distance, and return, each 

 taking an. irregular semicircular route, and opening into the high 



