!

But this is only true when the mole is in his proper sphere or home.
There he can fight like a tiger, catch his prey both below and above
ground, build wells to collect and retain water, swim like a fish, and
do many things which would seem impossible, judging from his awkward and
clumsy manner above ground.

His apparent awkwardness while out of his natural habitat is largely due
to the peculiar formation of his limbs, and the stupid appearance of his
small half-hidden eyes. These features seem to mark him to the casual
observer as a dull animal, yet in reality he is very active and bright,
and when at home displays his marvellous genius in many ways! His
upturned hands become powerful shovels, and by the aid of an extra bone,
the sickle, which belongs to the inside of the thumb, he is enabled to
work like an athlete. His velvet-like hair stands straight up, like the
pile on velvet, and his tiny eyes are so hidden by hair that they do not
get injured. The eyes are not well finished from an optician's point of
view--but they serve admirably all the needs of the mole's life. As dull
and stupid as he appears, he is, considering his size, the fiercest and
most active animal in existence. Imagine him the size of a wild cat! He
would be a beast of exceeding ferocity. Even a lion would find him a
formidable antagonist. With such an animal tunnelling in his fields and
cellars, man would have a terror hard to exterminate.

The mole is an engineer and miner who seems to have a strange sense of
direction practically unknown to many other animals. How he manages to
form tunnels and burrows in lines of such unusual straightness is
unknown; he always works in darkness, unless it is that he can see in
the dark. His little hills are not deliberate structures; they are only
shaft ends through which this miner throws out the earth that he has
scooped from subterranean depths, and in most cases smoothed out so that
if an observer examines the burrow he will find only solid earth, and a
road into his tunnel which leads to his real habitation.

The home of the mole is usually beneath a tree or hillock, and reminds
one of a miniature city of tunnels and engineering feats. The main, or
central, room is shaped like a great dome, the upper part of which is
level with the earth around the hill, and therefore nowhere near its
apex. Mr. Wood has verified the observation that around the keep are two
circular passages, one of which is level w