The Mole. 



307 



habits throughout the mainland to Sutherlandshire and 

 Caithness. In Sutherland, when the old statistical account 

 of the parishes was published in 1843, it was very rare in the 

 parish of Durness, and only to be met with on the western 

 side of Loch Hope. In Assynt it is now commonly to be 

 found in low-lying ground and valleys -where the surface is 

 cultivated. In some of the pastures numbers of old mole- 

 hills may be seen overgrown with grass, making the whole 

 surface of the fields rough and uneven. In Sutherlandshire 

 the Mole is never found at any considerable elevation, a fact 

 which must be attributed to the nature of the soil, or rather 

 to the want of soil on the hill-sides ; for in other localities it 

 ascends mountains to a great height. Mr. William Evans, 

 of Edinburgh, has seen its hillocks at a height of fully 1,700 

 feet on the Pentland Hills and still higher on the Ochils. 



The Irish naturalist Thompson observed the tunnellings of 

 the Mole at Aberarder, about sixteen miles from Inverness, 

 and the late Thomas Edward, of Banff, reported that although 

 it used to be very rare in Banffshire, it has of late years 

 become more numerous there. In the autumn of 1887 the 

 present writer, while grouse-shooting in Elginshire, was one 

 day much interested in observing the actions of a Mole 

 travelling above ground. 



In Lanarkshire, the late Edward Alston, who resided at 

 Lesmahagow. in that county, reported it as sufficiently 

 common in spite of constant persecution. It was found to 

 be spreading rapidly in West Argyllshire, and in Mull it is 

 said to have been accidentally introduced in a boatload of 

 earth from Morven ; but it appears to be unknown in the 

 rest of the Scottish Islands. 



With regard to the distribution of the Mole in Wales, there 

 is not much information to hand. Its occurrence has been 

 noted in Monmouthshire and in Carnarvonshire, beyond 

 which county it finds the limit of its range westward in 

 Anglesea. Commenting upon its absence from Ireland, 

 William Thompson, of Belfast, remarks in his " Natural 

 History of Ireland " : " It is singular when entering Scotland 

 and Wales at the nearest ports to Ireland, to see mole-hills 

 in both these countries almost as soon as we land. They are 



