122

LAND MOLES AND WATER MOLES.

duced. Le Court took his stand at the other. If he stood quite still the mole soon came out and escaped, but, if, at the moment in which she showed herself at the hole, he moved only his thumb, she stopped and turned back. By repeating this as often as she reappeared, the mole was kept imprisoned in the drain.

It is a curious fact not generally known that the mole will devour frogs. In his travels Sir George Rose got out of his carriage one day as it was dragging slowly through some deep sands to the east of Utrecht, where there is now a fine causeway. He heard a shrill squeak close to him in a half-dry ditch to his left, and looking into it saw a frog struggling to escape from a mole, which had seized it by the loins and was evidently endeavoring to prey upon it. Sir George killed the mole and freed its victim.

Moles are extremely punctual in their

ered that vast numbers of moles had undermined the banks of a canal, and that unless means were taken to prevent the catastrophe, these banks would give way and widespread inundation would ensue. By his ingenious contrivances and accurate knowledge of their habits he managed to extirpate them before the occurrence of further mischief.

Moles are easily tamed, and if kept in a box with a little dry hay and regularly fed, will thrive well. Indeed, as soon as one of them is caught and placed in confinement, it will begin to feed with the utmost indifference. Jesse mentions that some years ago a fine large mole was brought to him from Richmond Park, which was quite a curiosity, having the greatest part of the fur on its stomach of a beautiful orange color, and its back mottled with orange. He kept it alive some time, and it gradually became perhours of work. A careful observer in- fectly tame, knowing him, and recognizing formed Jesse that he had watched them his voice amidst many others; it was fed daily one summer, and found that they with worms, grubs, and beetles, and swam never varied in their time of commencing about in a large tank. But owing to the their work. rapidity of their movements moles are very difficult to catch. Often when a mole-catcher has seen by the movements of one of the hillocks that the animal was at work, and has remained motionless, spade in hand, ready to dash his weapon into the heap as soon as he saw the earth shake, the mere uplifting of his arm was sufficient, for before the spade could reach the ground, the mole was gone.

There can be little doubt that moles benefit mankind. For where old mole hills are most abundant on sheep pastures it is observed that the sheep are generally very healthy, as they feed on the wild thyme and other salubrious herbs which grow on these heaps of earth. But when these have been levelled and cleared away, the sheep do not thrive as well as they did previously. This fact is confirmed Strange to say, no moles are found in by J. Hogg-the Ettrick shepherd- the north of Scotland or in Ireland, which who deprecated the practice of removing some persons have ascribed to the soil molehills. He considered them excellent and climate, but they exist in other parts drainers of land, and used to declare that of Europe under similar circumstances. if a hundred men and horses were em- The fur of the mole is very short, and is ployed to dress a pasture farm of one as smooth and soft as Genoa velvet, so thousand five hundred or two thousand beautiful, in fact, that it is said hats have acres, they would not do it as effectually been made of it, and it is surprising that as moles would do if left to themselves. it has not been turned to greater advan In Leicestershire, where old molehills tage. abound in the fine and extensive pastures, THE WATER MOLE, PARADOX, OR sheep thrive well and are remarkably PLATYPUS. It would be curious to trace healthy. In further confirmation of these the changes that have taken place in this observations it may be added that in con- world of ours since Australia, with its sequence it is supposed of the mole strange animal and plant life, which now hills having been destroyed in the park stands out alone, was joined to the main. which formerly belonged to the Earl of land of Asia, from whence it received its Essex in Herefordshire, the deer in it live forms of mammalia. Moreover, it never afterwards throve well. Sometimes, has since its separation from the eastern however, it happens that they do serious continent been preserving for us, in a damage by their undermining. M. Le kind of natural isolated Zoological Gar Court, who devoted a great part of his den, the strange, primitive water mole or life to the study of moles, was able by his platypus, with the echidna and the marsuobservations to render important service pials of every species. to a large district in France. He discov- The platypus, called in that country the

LAND MOLES AND WATER MOles.

nous points to it which can be extended

into a star.

The mole is an extremely voracious animal, often making the ground above him heave as he toils on eager for prey, pushing up continually with his nose the loose earth he has excavated, and thus making a line of molehills. He will eat flesh, and when shut up in a cage has been known to eat his comrade.

is recorded of a mole, when in confinement, having a viper and a toad given to it, both of which it killed and devoured. Moles always squeeze out the earthy matter which is inside worms before eating them, which they do with the most eager

rapidity.

several

121

of water, their fortress generally commu nicates with a ditch or pond. Their sanitary arrangements are also good in other respects, moles being so particularly clean in their habits and in their chambers that they build a separate cell at some distance from their dwelling-chamber for their needs. Another apartment is prepared for the reception of the young; it is placed An instance at some distance from the citadel, where galleries meet. The bed for the young is composed of blades of wheat with which they form a sort of mattresss. Four or five little ones are born at a time, which begin to run about in five or six weeks, and learn to provide their own food when they are but half grown. Leading from the lower gallery are eight or nine other tunnels round the hillock through which the mole hunts his prey. If the hillock be very large, and there are many roads, it serves for several moles, but they are careful never to trespass on each other's hunting ground. If they happen to meet in one of the tunnels they retreat, or else there is a fight in which the weakest is vanquished.

The slightest deprivation of food appears to drive them to frenzy and soon kills them. During the months of June and July they prowl about upon the surface of the ground, generally by night, but occasionally by day; this is when they indulge in fleshy food by catching small birds, lizards, and snails. In these excursions they are often devoured by owls at night, and dogs by day. Their antipathy to garlic is so strong that a little of it put into their runs causes their destruction. They are almost blind, but their hearing is so acute that it makes up for this deficiency in the other sense.

The

The mole is never known to work for food near the place he has chosen for his fortress. When constructing his nest he labors about two hours in the morning and the same time in the evening and then Little was known of the habits of the returns to his resting-place, which is so mole till a French naturalist - M. St. Hi- situated that he is instantly made aware laire - published his interesting account of any danger. This is managed by form. of these animals. He proves that they ing the upper runs in a sort of circle, so display remarkable intelligence in the as to communicate a vibration when anyconstruction of their fortresses. Their thing passes over them, and thus the mole site is not indicated by the little mounds is warned and escapes by one of his safety of earth which mark their hunting expedi- runs. tions, but is under a hillock raised by Moles are excellent swimmers. themselves, protected either by a bank, late Earl of Derby possessed a small de the roots of a tree, or a wall. First, the serted island on the Loch of Clunie, one earth is well worked to make it hard and hundred and eighty yards from the maincompact, then galleries are formed com- land, and, despite the distance, a number municating with each other. A round of moles crossed the water, and took posgallery is made at the upper part of the session of this place. They are said to mound, and five descending passages lead be dragged as beavers are, by their com from this to a gallery below, which is still panions, who lay hold of their tails and larger. Then there is a chamber within pull them along while they lie on their this lower gallery, which conducts to the backs, embracing a quantity of soil dug out upper gallery by three tunnels. This in forming their runs. chamber may be called the citadel of the fortress. In it the mole sleeps. It is very dry and comfortable, the sides being plastered with great care. A principal gallery goes from the lower one in a direct line as far as the animal hunts, and at the bottom of the dormitory is another, descending farther into the earth. Several runs are made to serve as drains to carry off the water. As moles require a great deal

Although the mole is commonly reputed to be blind, he has evidently a glimmering of sight. M. Le Court, who assisted M. St. Hilaire, says that in swimming-runs, they habitually guide themselves by sight. M. St. Hilaire disputed this, and they contrived the following experiment to ascertain the fact. They made two openings in a dry tiled drain, at one of which several moles were successfully intro

120

LAND MOLES AND WATER MOLES.

The Lithuanian peasants are industri- the chiefs of their clans. When a noble ous and thrifty. Their food consists of speaks to a peasant he always calls him potatoes, buckwheat porridge, beetroot, "friend or "brother," but nevertheless sauerkraut, kluski — a sort of maccaroni, expects and receives every demonstration but quite black - pancakes, rye bread, and of respect from him, and if these should meat either beef or pork - eaten once perchance not be readily shown, his sera day in soup. They always have two vants very soon teach the offender betsoups for dinner, one without meat and ter manners; for here, as elsewhere, the the other with, the former being quite retainer is wont to take the side of sour. A bath-house is erected in every his master against those of his own village, and used once a week by all the peasants, who bring their own fuel. When

the

they have remained long enough in heated atmosphere, they take a plunge in the river, and wind up by beating themselves well with birch twigs. They live in a kind of rough comfort, and are never in want, but are not nearly so expansive as their Russian neighbors, these latter being always ready with some friendly speech: "Ah! that is your eldest daughter," they will say on meeting a lady and her little girl. She must be of such an age, I remember her christening very well; I suppose she is very clever now, and has learned a great many things," and so on. These Russians are of the sect of the

class.

From The Month.

LAND MOLES AND WATER MOLES.

AMONG the smaller mammalia, seeking safety in concealment, we find the land mole, having a very primitive skeleton and small brains, an extremely timid and unobtrusive little creature, which yet exercises no little influence upon our welfare. Constantly surrounding our country habitations, it greatly checks the rapid increase of those worms, which, living beneath the soil, would otherwise destroy the crops Starowierzi (men of the old faith); there that are necessary to our very existence. are some peculiarities in their doctrine Among the insectivora the mole is unand ritual, and the Russo-Greeks are not doubtedly the most skilful and successful very fond of them. They are a simple, digger. All that have watched him workkindly folk, but very poor; and their vig his tortuous way through the ground lages, of which there are many, are not in search of food must admit that it would nearly so well built as those of the Lithu. be difficult to find a miner more admirably anians, neither do they possess land of fitted for his work. their own, for, having always been Russian Though his skeleton is more roughly subjects, they gained nothing at the time formed than that of the higher animals, of the insurrection, since it was not nec his ear almost closed, and his bright eyes essary to conciliate them; they, therefore, almost hidden, the organs necessary for have to pay rent for their holdings, but his work are wonderfully fitted for that cannot be turned out of them. The gifts which they have to perform. His broad, to the Lithuanian peasantry were made by shovel-like front paws-with their five the Russian government with the view of strong claws, set each in a long groove at ingratiating itself with them and punish- the tip of the last finger-jointing the nobles, upon whom it comes down erful tools for shovelling away the earth, with severity at every opportunity, treat when he turns them outwards, and pushes ing them, in fact, more hardly than the with them just as if he were swimming. Poles, because these latter, having been Besides which, they are placed in strong, more recently conquered, are thought to short, broad front legs fixed by collar. have a better right to claim their free- bones to a shoulder-blade of remarkable dom, while the action of the Lithuanians strength, and the breast-bone is curiously is looked upon as rebellion. The noble formed so as to throw the legs forward, Lithuanian families have, therefore, no bringing them, when he is burrowing, on love for Russia, while the peasants, on a level with his nose. Even this organ the other hand, rather incline towards her, has its part to play, being long and slenbeing far from possessing much devotion der, with a small bone at the tip, which to the lords of the soil, who have for cen- helps him in pushing his way forward, turies held them in bondage, and would while his hind feet are firmly planted flat willingly do so still, although, as we have on the ground. His nose also serves to shown, they are quite ready to take ad- pick out the worms and beetles from their vantage of the favorable dispositions of holes. In one species this peculiar bone those who may be styled in some sort of the nose has twenty-two small cartilagi.

are pow.

IN LITHUANIA.

he prepares a marriage contract; and besides all this, he superintends very closely the management of his own estates, which cover, perhaps, as much space as a goodsized English county, and in order to do all this he has to be perfectly familiar with half-a-dozen languages. He probably belongs, also, to the Zyaszd, an agricultural society composed of a certain number of large landed proprietors, who meet once a month at each others' houses to examine into the state of their respective farms, and discuss the best methods of procedure in each department, everything being looked into at these visits, the person on whose estate the Zyaszd is held being obliged to rectify before the next meeting whatever may been found faulty in his management. Moreover, each member has to make a particular study of some branch of farming, and to give a lecture upon it, so that the results are eminently practical; and cattle-breeding, poultryrearing, and fruit-growing come in for as great a share of attention as the produc

tion of

crops.

cereal The Lithuanian peasant is a stalwart fellow, tall and fair, wearing a moustache, but no beard. He has a great fancy for bright colors, and while his tight-fitting jacket of home-made cloth will probably be of darkish red, nothing is too gay for his vest and trousers. Pea-green, orange, pink, light yellow, and sky-blue are the favorite shades for these garments, very narrow lines of black being woven into the material at wide intervals, so as to form a check. On week days the trousers are tucked into the high boots, but on Sundays they are let down over them. In summer-time we have a full view of this startling costume, which is surmounted by a cloth cap, and at this season a gang of laborers produces somewhat the effect of a walking flower-bed; but during the greater part of the year, this finery is concealed by the inevitable sheepskin coat, worn, of course," with the furry side in," and tightened at the waist by a leathern girdle, or on gala days, by a crimson sash, the head-covering being then a full velvet cap, like a bag, with a broad border and ear flaps of curled wool. And if the men glory in trousers, so also do the women in skirts, which are of brightcolored, striped stuff, also home-made, and enormously full, as many as seven or eight being worn one over another, so as to produce a charming crinoline effect the more distended the better

119 which latter shade they affect very much, trimmed all round with black braid, and buttoned up the front, with an apron of colored print, and any amount of beads round the neck. The feminine head-gear is remarkably graceful, namely, a very long white muslin scarf embroidered in colors, twisted about the head and throat, with the ends falling low down the back. In winter — and winter we must remember lasts for fully eight months this glory is hidden, at least when out of doors, by the universal sheepskin, and by a thick shawl or woollen handkerchief covering the head and tied round the waist. When the coat is new, the skin is either of creamy whiteness or else dyed a bright orange-color. It is long enough to reach to the heels, is trimmed with curled wool, either black or grey, and finished off at the neck with a broad collar to match. Should a wedding take place in winter it is de rigueur for all the eight or ten brides. maids to have fur coats exactly alike. In summer these are replaced by long grey woollen cloaks covering the whole dress.

A peasant wedding always takes place on Sunday, and if it is a grand one, the whole church is lighted up, even the side altars; it must be remembered that the Lithuanians are devout Roman Catholics. The bride is led in by two young men and followed by her bridesmaids, who all, like herself, are in their best dresses, and wear crowns of flowers. The bridegroom is accompanied by several young men, and behind the wedding party are the two mothers. A table is placed within the sanctuary, having on it a crucifix and candles, and it is there that the priest stands to unite the couple, and the bride would be guilty of very bad manners if she did not weep the whole time. If she is not inclined to do so the old women scold her. They then go home and feast for several days and nights, the first entertainment being given by the bride's mother, the next by that of the bridegroom, after which other relations follow suit. The national dance, which is something like a jig, and very difficult, is performed by a number of couples at once, and in the middle of it the bride and bridegroom disappear, and go to their own house. When a peasant has a marriageable daughter who has reached the age of twenty or twenty-four without finding a suitor, he puts a little tree or a flower pot in the window, or a knot of pink and blue the ribbon, this being the recognized intima

toilet being completed by a loose jacket tion that a prétendant will not be unacof one color, usually light-grey or beet-root, | ceptable.

few lines are comprised many fundamental | you shape your course for the heart of dogmas of Catholic theology. Dante com- the great empire itself. bined the flights of the imagination with As to the physical aspect of the prov. the speculations of reason; he treats of ince, it is flat hopelessly, absolutely flat the beginning of the world and of its end; and, moreover, damp and marshy; he depicts earth and heaven, men, angels, which state of things has, it will be perand demons, mingling grave dogmas with ceived, its compensations during the long, fanciful legends, bringing into juxtaposi severe winter. As far as the eye can tion the finite and the infinite. More reach we see nothing but field and forest, thoroughly than any other poet does he with here and there an occasional village, understand human nature, with its per- and on each side of the straight, narrow petual aspirations after the infinite, and roads is a deep ditch that carries the enter into the yearnings which continually drainage of the arable land to the river. lead it to look from the fleeting things of A Lithuanian village is, however, a pretty earth up to Him who, bounded neither by sight, consisting, as it does, of a number time or space, lives and moves throughout of thatched houses interspersed with timthe whole of the vast universe which His ber trees, each house having its fruit gar fiat summoned into being. den in front, and its little yard and outhouses, the whole surrounded by a wooden paling. The cottages are very small, having a frontage, say, of thirty feet, divided into three rooms, all on the ground floor, the stove, on which the family sleep at night, being in the central apartment. The cottages are built of logs, squared only on the inside; but the chimney, when there is one, is of brick. While the poorer ones remain in the rough, those of the better class are colored grey, their tiny windows having green or white shutters, on which groups of flowers are sometimes rudely painted.

A. OLIVIERI.

From The Spectator.

IN LITHUANIA.

I.

FEW persons who have not actually lived in Lithuania are at all able to realize the distinctive character of that ancient grand duchy, which is to most of us just a part of Russia, and nothing more. We may possibly remember that its people are supposed to be of Slavonic descent, After the insurrection of 1863, and the and its language nearly akin to Sanscrit, consequent emancipation of the serf, the but we are just as likely to confuse it with cottage and field, or rather bit of allotment Poland, a country with which it was so ground which he had held from his maslong united. Now, to compare a Lithua- ter, became his own property, and he now nian with a Pole, and vice versâ, is to af- pays taxes for them to the government. front either party very decidedly. In the But although a free man, perfectly coneyes of the inhabitants of "the kingdom," scious of his position in this respect, suffias Poland is designated by the people of cient time has not yet elapsed to effect the neighboring State, the Lithuanian is much change in his relations with the a heavy creature, caring for little beyond great proprietors, who are still looked his business, of which he is thoroughly upon in some sort as feudal chiefs, or, if master, and entirely wanting in savoir we prefer to designate the relationship vivre; while by him the Pole is regarded now subsisting as paternal, it is that of a as shallow and vain. The truth lies, of parent who does not fail upon occasion to course, between the two extremes; each mingle wholesome chastisement with his his virtues and each his little failings. fatherly care. The peasant, who knows On the whole, however, we are inclined to extremely well how to look out for his own towards the sturdy Lithuanian, for interest, takes good care to keep on very whether he be prince or peasant, we feel good terms with the grand seigneur; and that he can be depended upon; and his the post of the latter is by no means a sincountry has, as we have already said, a ecure, for no business is satisfactorily setperfectly distinctive character, so that in tled that he has not had a hand in. Every whichever direction you cross the bound- morning, while his wife is administering ary, you at once perceive yourself to be medicines and other necessaries to the in another nationality, not merely if you people who come to her sometimes from turn towards Protestant Courland, with immense distances, he holds a levée. For its German-speaking population and the one he draws out a will, for another he homely customs of Vaterland, or dive into settles a dispute, for a third he decides Austrian or Russian Poland, but even if the value of a piece of land, for a fourth

has

lean