The Mole, though not blind, has eyes so small, and so covered, that
it can have little benefit from the sense of seeing. In recompense,
Nature has bestowed on it a profuse portion of the [309]
sixth sense, remarkable vessels and reservoirs,*
a prodigious quantity of seminal fluid, enormous testicles, a
penis of immoderate length; and all these parts are concealed within
the body, which must render them more hot and active. Of all animals
the mole is most amply endowed with generative organs, and
consequently with their relative sensations. It has, besides, a
delicate sense of touch; a skins as soft as velvet; a very fine ear,
and small hands, with five fingers, very different from the
extremities of other quadrupeds, and nearly similar to the human
hand; great strength in proportion to the size of its body; a compact
skin; and a perpetual vigour. So lively and reciprocal an attachment
subsists between the male and female, that they seem to dread or to
disrelish all other society. They enjoy the placid habits of repose
and of solitude, the art of securing themselves from disquiet and
injury, of instantaneously making an asylum or habitation, or
extending its dimensions, and of finding a plentiful subsistence,
without the necessity of going abroad. These are the manner, the
dispositions, and the talents of the mole; and they are
unquestionably preferable to talents [310] more brilliant,
and more incompatible with happiness, than the most profound
obscurity.
The mole shuts up the entrance of her retreat, and seldom leaves it,
unless compelled by the admission of water, or when its mansion is
demolished by art. She makes a round vault in the meadows, and
generally a long trench in the gardens; because it is easier to
remove cultivated ground, than a turf rendered compact and solid by
the roots of herbs.
As the moles seldom leave their subterranean abodes, they have few
enemies, and easily elude the carnivorous animals. The overflowing of
rivers is their greatest scourge: During inundations, they are seen
swimming in vast numbers, and using every effort to gain the more
elevated grounds; but most of them perish, as well as their young,
who remain in their holes. Without this devastation, the great
talents they have for multiplying would render them extremely
incommodious to man. They couple about the end of winter, and go but
a short time with young; for we find them very small in the month of
May. They generally bring forth four or five at a time; and it is
easy to distinguish the hillocks under which they litter; for they
are larger, and made with more art than the common kind. I believe
those [311] animals bring forth more than once a year; but of
this I cannot be certain: It is a fact, however, that we meet with
young ones from April to August. Perhaps some of them may be later in
coupling than others.
The habitations where they deposit their young merits a particular
description; because it is constructed with singular intelligence.
They begin with raising the earth, and forming a pretty high arch.
They leave partitions, or a kind of pillars at certain distances,
beat and press the earth, interweave it with the roots of plants, and
render it so hard and solid, that the water cannot penetrate the
vault, on account of its convexity and firmness. They then elevate a
little hillock below, upon the top of which they lay herbs and
leaves, for a bed to their young. In this situation, they are above
the level of the ground, and consequently out of the reach of
ordinary inundations, and are, at the same time, defended from the
rains by the large vault that covers the internal one, upon the
convexity of which they rest, along with their young. This internal
hillock, or vault, is pierced on all sides with sloping holes, which
descend still lower, and serve as subterraneous passages for the
mother to go in quest of food for herself and her offspring. These
by-paths are firm and beaten, extend about twelve or fifteen paces,
and issue from the mansion like rays from a centre. We likewise find,
under the superior vault, the remains of the roots of the
colchicum, or [312] meadow saffron, which seem to be
the first food given to the young. From this description it is
apparent, that the mole never comes out but at a considerable
distance from her habitation, and that the most simple and most
certain method of taking both the old and the young, is to make a
round trench, which will cut off all the communicating passages. But,
as the mole, upon the smallest noise, flies, and endeavours to carry
off her young, it will be necessary to employ three or four men with
spades to raise the hillock at once, or to make a trench almost
instantaneously, and then to seize them, or to watch them as they
attempt to escape.
It has been foolishly asserted by some writers,*
that the mole and badger sleep during the whole winter, without
taking any food. The badger, as we formerly remarked,+
comes out of his hole in winter, as well as in summer, in quest of
provisions; and it is easy to be ascertained of this fact, by the
tracks he leaves upon the snow. The mole sleeps so little in winter,
that she raises the earth in the same manner as she does in summer;
and the country people remark, that a thaw approaches, because the
moles make hills. They are, indeed, fond of warm places; and they
are often caught by the gardeners in the months of December, January,
and February. [313]
The frequents cultivated countries only. There are none in the dry
deserts, nor in the cold climates, where the earth is frozen during
the greatest part of the year. The animal called the Siberian
mole,* with green and yellow hair, is a
different species from our mole, which abounds only from Sweden+
to BarbaryÝ; for, rom the silence of travellers, it
is presumeable, that they exist not in hot climates. Those of America
are likewise different: The Virginian mole,º
however, has a great resemblance to ours, excepting in the colour of
the hair, which is mixed with a deep purple. But the red mole of
America is a different animal.||
There are only two or three varieties in our common moles; we
find them more or less brown or black; and we have seen them entirely
white. Seba describes and gives a figure of a black and white mole,
which as found in East-Friesland, and was somewhat larger than our
mole.**
Pontoppidan assures us, that the mole exists not in Norway, because
that country is too rocky to afford it proper accommodation.