SCALOPS AQUATICUS. 
57 
excavate a gallery several hundred yards in length ; and I have 
myself traced a fresh one nearly one hundred yards. The only 
method by which we can arrive at a just appreciation of the magni- 
tude of this labor is by comparison ; and computation shows that in 
order to perform equivalent work a man would have to excavate, in 
a single night, a tunnel thirty-seven miles long, and of sufficient size 
to easily admit of the passage of his body. 
In following the galleries of the Shrew Mole one finds a number 
of little hills of loose earth, each measuring from four to six inches in 
height, and eight to ten in diameter. They are usually in groups, 
a few feet apart, but are sometimes isolated. Lawns and flower beds 
are often disfigured by them in a few hours, for a large number are 
sometimes thrown up in a surprisingly short space of time. “ I have 
often examined these eminences,” writes Dr. Godman, “ and have 
never been able fully to understand how they are formed ; a slight 
motion is observed at the surface, and presently this loose earth is 
seen to be worked up through a small orifice, whence, falling on all 
sides, by its accumulation the hills just mentioned are produced. It 
seems to be brought from some distance, for on breaking up the 
gallery, it was evident that more earth had been thrown out than 
could have been removed in excavating the immediately adjoining 
portions of the burrow. In one instance I have seen the shrew-mole 
show the extremity of its snout from the centre of one of these loose 
hills, where it had come at mid-day, as if for the purpose of enjoying 
the sunshine, without exposing its body to the full influence of the 
external air.” * 
I have many times observed small areas, several square yards in 
extent, particularly in meadow-land, where the ground was fairly 
covered with mole-hills, and so cut up with their galleries that in 
walking over it one was sure to break through the surface. It seems 
reasonable to suppose that the animal discovers, in these places, an 
5 
* Loc. cit. , p. 62. 
