“And how about gardens?” queried Louis.
“That is another question. In a few hours a mole can almost ruin a garden. Who would want such a digger among his growing vegetables? You carefully sow your seeds, set out your young plants, even off the ground, and make water-channels; the very next morning—plague take the creature! it has turned everything topsy-turvy. Quick, a spade, a trap, and let us get rid of the pest as soon as possible! Suppose, however, that cutworms and other destructive vermin abound; shall we gain anything by killing the mole? Certainly not. The insects will speedily do more harm than the mole has just wrought; greater mischief is in store, and that is all there is about it. If I had a garden infested with destructive insects, here is what I should do. In the spring I should let loose in my garden half a dozen moles taken alive in the field, and I should then leave them to pursue their hunting in peace. Their work done, the ground cleaned, I should take the moles away.”
“You can catch them whenever you want to?” asked Louis.
“Nothing easier. You shall see for yourself.” [[77]]
CHAPTER X
THE MOLE’S NEST—THE SHREW-MOUSE
“All that you know of the mole’s labors is confined to the little mounds of earth, the mole-hills, that it throws up, and the tunnels, of greater or less extent, that it bores just beneath the surface of the soil. These tunnels are hunting-trails, made by the animal in order to search amid the roots for the larvæ it lives on. If the ground is full of game, the mole halts there, probing to right and left, wherever it smells a grub. If the spot is a poor one it prolongs the tunnel or bores fresh ones hither and thither, in every direction, until it finds a place to suit it. But, however abundant the larvæ may be, one vein is soon exhausted, whereupon the old diggings are abandoned and fresh ones undertaken from day to day.
“Near its hunting-ground, thus honeycombed with a succession of tunnels as called for, the mole has a burrow, a fixed abode, to which it retires to rest, sleep, and rear its young. This burrow is a work of art, a strong castle, in the making of which the cautious animal uses great skill, with a view to the utmost possible security. You must not think I am talking about the mole-hills, which are merely the [[78]]dirt thrown out in the digging. The mole is never to be found lurking beneath these crumbling hillocks.
