An enemy so numerous and destructive would quickly render the countries where they appear utterly uninhabitable, did it not fortunately happen that the same rapacity that animates them to destroy the labours of mankind, at last impels them to destroy and devour each other. (g) After committing incredibl devastations, they are at last seen to separate into two armies, opposed with deadly hatred, along the coasts of the larger lakes and rivers. The Laplanders, who observe them thus drawn up to fight, instead of considering their mutual animosity as a happy riddance of the most dreadful pest, form ominous prognostics from the manner of their arrangement. They consider their combats as a presage of war, and expect an invasion from the Russians or the Swedes, as the sides next those kingdoms happen to conquer. The two divisions, however, continue their engagements and animosity until one party overcomes the other. From that time they utterly disappear, nor is it well known what becomes of either the conquerors or the conquered. Some suppose that they rush headlong into the sea, others that they kill themselves, as some are found hanging on the forked branches of a tree, and others still that they are destroyed by the young spring herbage. But the most probable opinion is, that, having devoured the vegetable productions of the country, and having nothing more to subsist on, they then fall to devouring each other; and, having habituated themselves to that kind of food, continue it. However this be, they are often found dead by thousands, and their carcasses have been known to infect the air for several miles round, so as to produce very malignant disorders. They seem also to infect the plants they have gnawed, for the cattle often die at afte wards feed in the places where they passed.

As to the rest, the male is larger and more beautifull spotted t an the female. They are extremely prolific; and what is extraordinary, their breeding does not hinder their march; for some of them have been observed to carry one young one in their mouth, and another on their back. They are greatly preyed upon by the ermine, and, as we are told even by the rein-deer. The Swedes and Norwegians, who live by husbandry, consider an invasion from these vermin as a terrible visitation; but it is very different with respect to the Laplanders, who lead a vagrant life, and who, like the lemmings themselves, if their provisions be destroyed in one part of the country, can easily retire to another. These are never so happy as when an army of lemmings come down amongst them; for then they feast upon their flesh; which though horrid food, and which, though even dogs and cats are known to detest, these little savages esteem very good eating, and devour greedily. They are glad of their arrival also upon another account, for they always expect a great plenty of game the year following, among those fields which the lemmings have destroyed.

THE MOLE To these minute animals of the rat kind, a great part of whose lives is past in holes under

ground, I will subjoin one little animal more, no way resembling the rat, except that its whole life is spent there. As we have seen some quadrupeds formed to crop the surface of the fields, and others to live upon the tops of trees, so the mole is formed to live wholly under the earth, as if Nature meant that no place should be left wholly untenanted.

This animal, so well known in England, is, however, utterly a stranger in other places, and particularly in Ireland. For such, therefore, as have never seen it, a short description will be necessary. And, in the first place, though somewhat of a size between the rat and the mouse, it no way resembles either, being an animal entirely of a singular kind, and perfectly unlike any other quadruped whatever. It is bigger than a mouse, with a coat of fine, short,

(g) Dictionnaire Raisonnée, vol. ii. p. 610.

glossy, black hair. Its nose is long and pointed, resembling that of a hog, but much longer. Its eyes are so small that it is scarce possible to discern them. Instead of ears it has only holes in the place. Its neck is so short that the head seems stuck upon the shoulders. The body is thick and round, terminating by a very small, short tail, and its legs also are so very short, that the animal seems to lie flat on its belly. From under its belly, as it rests in this position, the four feet appear just as if they immediately grew out of the body. Thus the animal appears to us at first view as a mass of flesh covered with a fine, shining, black skin, with a little head, and scarce any legs, eyes, or tail. On a closer inspection, however, two little black points may be discerned, that are its eyes. The ancients, and some of the moderns, were of opinion that the animal was utterly blind; but Derham, by the help of a microscope, plainly discovered all the parts of the eye that are known in other animals, such as the pupil, the vitreous and the crystalline humours.† The fore-legs appear very short and strong, and furnished with five claws to each. These are turned outwards and backwards, as the hands of a man when swimming. The hind legs are longer and weaker than the fore, being only used to assist its motions; whereas the others are continually employed in digging. The teeth are like those of a shrew-mouse, and there are five on both sides of the upper jaw, which stand out; but those behind are divided into points. The tongue is as large as the mouth will hold.

The smallness of its eyes, which induced the ancients to think it was blind, is, to this animal, a peculiar advantage. A small degree of vision is sufficient for a creature that is ever destined to live in darkness. A more extensive sight would only have served to show the horrors of its prison, while Nature had denied it the means of an escape.

As the eye is thus perfectly fitted to the animal's situation, so also are the

BLINDNESS OF THE MOLE.-The.Greeks, as has been generally assumed, described the mole as blind, an error which modern zoologists have piqued themselves in detecting; M. Olivier, however, has shown that this wonderful people, whose mental faculties shot forth as it were a meteor through the surrounding density, and anticipated the progress of human art and intellect by many tedious ages, were not so idle in their observations, or incautious in their conclusions. The aσwaλag of the Greeks was, doubtless, the animal now under consideration, which was indigenous in their country or around them, whereas the mole was an exotic in Greece. The Romans may, however, bear the blame of having led us into this error, by rendering the word aσwaλat into talpa, and applying that word to the mole of Europe. GRIFFITH.

VISION OF THE MOLE.-Does the mole see? Aristotle and all the Greek philosophers, thought it blind. Galen, on the other hand, maintained that the mole saw. He affirmed that it has all the known means of sight. The question has been resumed in modern times. Naturalists have found the eye of the animal. It is very small-not larger than a millet seed; its colour is an ebony black; it is hard to the touch; and can scarcely be depressed by squeezing it between the fingers. Besides the eyelid which covers it, it is pro

tected by long hairs, which crossing each other, form a thick and strong bandage. Such an eye ought to be destined to see. But anatomists do not find the optic nerve. What use could an eye be of, deprived of a nerve, which in other animals transmits the visual sensations to the brain? This consideration naturally tends to restore the opinion of Aristotle and the Greeks, and to induce the belief that the mole does not see, and that its eye is only a rudimental point, without use.

Direct experiments, however, made at the request of G. St. Hilaire, show most incontestibly that the mole makes use of its eyes, since it turns to avoid obstacles placed in its way. But if the mole sees, how is this accomplished without an optic nerve. M. Serres was of opinion that the place of this nerve was supplied by a superior branch of the fifth pair, analogous to the opthalmic branch of Willis.

According to Geoffroy St. Hilaire, this change of function in a nerve, which is not naturally destined to perform, does not exist. The mole sees by aid of a particular nerve, being unable, on account of the too great extension of the olfactory apparatus, to follow the direction which it takes in other animals, towards the tubercula quadrigemina, takes another direction, and anastomoses, in the nearest point (au plus pres,) with the nerve of the fifth vair ARCANA OF SCIENCE, 1832.

senses of hearing and smelling.* The first gives it notice of the most distant appearance of danger; the other directs it, in the midst of darkness, to its food. The wants of a subterraneous animal can be but few; and these are sufficient to supply them to eat, and to produce its kind, are the whole employment of such a life; and for both these purposes it is wonderfully adapted by Nature.(g)

Thus admirably is this animal fitted for a life of darkness and solitude; with no appetites but what it can easily indulge, with no enemies but what it can easily evade or conquer. As soon as it has once buried itself in the earth, it seldom stirs out, unless forced by violent rains in summer, or when in pursuit of its prey, it happens to come too near the surface, and thus gets into the open air, which may be considered as its unnatural element. In general, it chooses the looser softer grounds, beneath which it can travel with greater ease; in such also it generally finds the greatest number of worms and insects, upon which it chiefly preys. It is observed to be most active, and to cast up most earth, immediately before rain; and, in winter, before a thaw: at those times the worms and insects begin to be in motion; and approach the surface, whither this industrious animal pursues them. On the contrary, in very dry weather, the mole seldom or never forms any hillocks; for then it is obliged to penetrate deeper after its prey, which at such seasons retire far into the ground.

As the moles very seldom come above ground, (g) they have but few enemies; and very readily evade the pursuit of animals stronger and swifter than themselves. Their greatest calamity is an inundation; which wherever it happens, they are seen, in numbers, attempting to save themselves by swimming, and using every effort to reach the higher grounds. The greatest part, however, perish, as well as their young, which remain in the holes behind. Were it not for such accidents, from their great fecundity, they would become extremely troublesome; and as it is, in some places, they are considered by the farmer as his greatest pest. They couple towards the approach of spring: and their young are found

*HEARING OF THE MOLE.-It is a common observation among ourselves, that the loss of one faculty, is generally in some measure compensated by the perfection of another. We have also frequent occasion to observe, that Nature, to a very considerable extent, is ever willing to vary and change the physicalities of a being, in accordance with its circumstances and situation. We need not, therefore, be surprised to find that the blind Spalax has the organs of hearing in a very perfect state. The external ear, indeed, has but a very small outward expansion, but the auditory canal is very large, and the whole organ internally greatly devoloped. When ou the surface, they almost always carry the head raised, apparently for the purpose of more effectually hearing what is passing around them; thus relying on their most perfect faculty, for a forewarning of approaching danger, which they have not the means of detecting by sight.-GRIFFITH.

MOLES AND MOLE-CATCHERS. "The moles are beginning to throw up the earth,

and to destroy the herbage of the light soils. What an extraordinary animal is the mole' We constantly see his trace of destructiveness, but how difficult is it to track him to his hiding place. The mole is destroyed by a trap of peculiar construction, which is discharged by the little animal passing through it. The mole-catcher-in general a quiet old man, who passes the winter in making his traps in his chimney corner-comes forth at this season with his implements of destruction. His practised eyes soon discover the track of the mole, from the mound which he throws up to some neighbouring bank, or from one mound to another. It is in this track or run that he sets his trap, a few inches below the surface of the ground. As the mole passes through this little engine of his ruin, he disturbs a peg which holds down a strong hazel rod in a bent position. The moment the peg is moved, the end of the rod which is held down flies up, and with it comes up the poor mole, dragged out of the earth which he has so ingeniously excavated, to be gibbeted

(g) Testes habet maximos, parastatas amplissimas, novum corpus seminale ab his diversum ac separatum. Penem etiam facile omnium, ni fallor, animalium longissimum, ex quibus colligere est maximam præ reliquis omnibus animalibus voluptatem in coitu, hoc abjectum et vile animalculum percipere, ut habeant quod ipsi invideant qui in hoc supremas vitæ suæ delicias collocant: Ray's Synops. Quadrup. p. 239. Huic opinioni assentitur D. Buffon, attamen non mihi apparet magnitudinem partium talem voluptatem augere. Maribus enim salacissimis contrarium obtinet.

(g) Buffon.