ORDER OF INSECTIYOEA. 
509 
the Mole- catchers collect around it, and with a spade the various 
galleries are cut off ; then the apartment itself is opened, and the 
nest reached. 
Moles are also got rid of by poison ; insects and other animal 
matters impregnated with poisonous substances being introduced 
into their burrows. Strong fumigations are also used to drive 
them away, such as sprinkling their galleries with an infusion of 
garlic and oil of petroleum. 
It is very difficult to keep Moles in captivity, as much trouble 
is entailed in procuring for them the enormous number of insects 
they daily devour. To this it may be added that the Mole can- 
not accommodate itself to confinement ; to enclose it in a box, or 
even in a room, is to bring about its death. It is soon affected 
A A 
Fig. 222. — Mole-traps. 
with subterranean nostalgia, and pines away for want of the 
aliment necessary to its febrile activity. 
Dr. Franklin, however, relates that an American, Mr. Titian 
Peale, succeeded in taming one. This Mole ate and drank a great 
deal; its regimen consisted of cooked or raw meat. Naturally 
lively, it followed the hand of its master by scent, frequently went 
to burrow under ground, but always returned for its food. 
The flesh of the Mole is not comestible ; it exhales a repugnant 
odour, and rapidly becomes putrid. Owing to the small size 
of its skin its fur cannot be of great utility. In the reign of 
Louis XV. the ladies of the Court put it to an unheard-of use — 
to compensate for the parsimony of nature they thought fit to 
replace their eyebrows by narrow strips of Mole’s skin. This is 
