' COMMON MOLE, ^55 
£ng in the dusk, he and another person, (lord Air- 
ly’ s butler) saw, at a short distance, upon the 
smooth water, some animal paddling to, and not 
far from the island. They soon dosed with this 
feeble passenger ; and found it to be our common 
mole, led by a most astonishing instinct, from the 
nearest point of land (the Castle hill) to take pos- 
session of this desert island . It had been, at the time 
of my visit, for the space of two years quite free 
from any subterraneous inhabitant ; but the mole 
has, for more than a year past, made its appear- 
ance again, and its operations I have since been 
witness to/' The depth of water in this lake is 
seldom less, either in summer or winter, than sis 
feet in the shallowest, and from thirty to forty in 
the deepest parts. 
People in general are not aware of the great mis- 
chief occasioned in fields and gardens by these 
animals. We are, however, informed by M. de 
BufFon, that in the year 1740 he planted about sis- 
teen acres of land with acorns, the greater part 
of which was in a very short time carried away by 
the moles to their subterraneous retreats. In many 
©f these were found half a bushel, and in some 
even a bushel. Ruffon, after this circumstance, 
caused a great number of iron traps to be construc- 
ted ; by which, in less than three weeks, he caught 
one thousand three hundred moles. To this in- 
stance of devastation we may add the fallowing : 
In the year 1742 they were so numerous in some 
parts of Holland, that one farmer alone caught 
between five and six thousand of them. The des- 
truction occasioned by these animals is, however, 
no new phenomenon. We are informed that the 
inhabitants of the island of Tenedos, the Trojans, 
and the rEolians, were infested by them in the 
earliest ages ; and for this reason a temple was 
