230 OBSERVATIONS ON THE MOLE. 
repeatedly 'confirmed to me by the verbal testimony of three 
honest men, on whose veracity I had no hesitation in rely- 
ing. They all three saw the mole, handled it, examined 
its eyes, &c., but did not observe whether it was a male or 
a female. Two of the men are since dead; the third is 
still alive, and has been my next-door neighbour for these 
thirty-seven years past : and had I had no other authority 
but his own for the truth of the fact referred to, I should 
have regarded it as altogether satisfactory. He has been 
long settled here as gardener and nurseryman to the Earl 
of Airly, — ^has himself been the death of many moles in his 
day, and was himself the death of the very individual mole 
in question. He has this very day, and not an hour ago, 
told me, that he recollects the circumstances that attended 
its death, more perfectly than many thousand things that 
have happened to him since. 
" It was in the year 1785, within a day or two of the 
summer-solstice, on a calm, mild evening, between nine and 
ten o'clock, when the surface of the lake was as smooth as 
a mirror, he, and another of the men abpve mentioned, had 
rowed about fifty yards from the island towards the main- 
land, when they observed the creature steering its course 
from the mainle^nd towards the island, and approaching to 
their boat. The gardener took off one of the oars, arrested 
the poor little voyager on its passage, struck it with the oar, 
killed it with the stroke^ took it up, and handed it to his 
companion in the boat. Next day they shewed it to the 
other man J when all the three became, for the first time, 
converts to the belief, that moles could swim. The animal 
was killed about 100 yards fropi the mainland, and about 
50 yards from the island. 
" Previous to this interesting catastrophe, molecasts had 
been observed on the island, and the people were at a loss 
to account for lliem. I have myself repeatedly observed 
