THE MOLE. 
104 
even to horses and large cattle, and a variety of the 
most extraordinary remedies for the wound, and pre- 
ventives against it, are mentioned by Pliny and others. 
The prejudices of antiquity, long as they usually are 
in keeping possession of the mind, have not been re- 
membered by us ; and we only know the hardy shrew 
now as a perfectly harmless animal, though we still 
retain a name for it expressive of something malignant 
and spiteful. 
I think we have reason for suspecting that a shrew 
new to Britain exists in this neighborhood. A pale 
blue shrew (sorex Daubentonii ? Cuvier) has been seen 
about the margins of our reenes, and the deep marsh 
ditches cut for draining the water from the low lands 
of the Severn ; and something of the same kind, in a 
half-digested state, has been found in the stomach of 
the heron. If it exist with us, a similar tract of land 
in more fenny countries may contain it plentifully, 
though it has as yet escaped detection. 
The mole, want, mouldwarper or mouldturner (talpa 
europea), is common with us, as it appears to be in 
most places ; and no creature gives more certain indi- 
cation of its presence, haunting, from preference, such 
places as its predecessors have done, though years may 
have intervened since they were frequented, and rains, 
and the treading of heavy cattle, have compressed to 
solid earth the ancient runs ; and however assiduously 
we may destroy them, should they appear again, it will 
probably be in the same places that have been formerly 
perforated by others. The earth that these animals eject 
from their runs, being obtained from very near the 
surface, and finely pulverized, has tempted me more 
than once to have it collected for my green-house plants, 
but not with the success that I had conjectured. Some 
persons have advocated the cause of moles, as being 
beneficial to vegetation, by loosening the soil about the 
roots of plants. Evelyn and others, again, censure them 
as injurious creatures ; and there is a strange narration 
in Buffon, accusing them of eating all the acorns of a 
newly-set soil. I am not aware of any benefit occasion- 
ed by their presence ; their warpings certainly give our 
