QUADRUPEDS. 59 
out of his runs. These molehills do a great deal of mis- 
chief to grass lands, as they render the ground very difficult 
to mow ; and on this account mole-catchers are employed 
to fix traps in the ground, so that when the Mole is running 
through one of his passages, he passes through the trap, 
which instantly springs up out of the ground with the 
poor Mole in it. The female Mole makes her nest at a 
distance from the male's castle. She has young only once 
a year, but she has four or five at a time. 
The following curious fact respecting a Mole is related 
by Mr. Bruce. " In visiting the Loch of Glume, I ob- 
served in it a small island, at the distance of a hundred 
and eighty yards from the land. Upon this island Lord 
Airley, the proprietor, had a castle and small shrubbery . 
I observed frequently the appearance of fresh molehills ; 
but for some time took it to be the water mouse, and one 
day I asked the gardener if it was so. He replied it was 
the Mole, and that he had caught one or two lately ; but 
that five or six years ago he had caught two in traps, and 
for two years after this he had observed none. But about 
four years since, coming ashore one summer's evening in 
the dusk, he and Lord Airley's butler saw, at a small dis- 
tance upon the smooth water, an animal paddling to, and not 
far distant from the island. They soon closed with the feeble 
passenger, and found it to be the common Mole, led by a 
most astonishing instinct from the nearest point of land, 
(the castle-hill,) to take possession of this island. It was 
at this time, for about the space of two years, quite free 
from any subterraneous inhabitant : but the Mole has, for 
more than a year past, made its appearance again." 
