Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-07-23
LORE or THE MOLE.
The Fiercest Animal In the World In Pro-
portion to Its Size.

portion to Its Size.
@What is the f~iercest animal in the
worldp" asked n Washington Star
writer of a zoologist.
"The MOLE" he replied. "You are
surprised, but such, in my opinion,
is the fact. People ordinarily look
upon the mole as a sluggish and harm
less creature, spending its life in CROP
ing blindly underground. As usual,
the popular idea is a mistaken one.
The mole is in reality the most fero-
cious and most active of animals.
Imagine it magniied to the size of a
tiger and you would have a more ter
rible beast than the world has yet
seen. Though with defective powers
of vision and therefore incapable of
following its prey by sight, it would be
agile beyond conception, %springing
this way and that as it went along.
leaping with lightning %quickness upon
any creature which il met, rending it
to pieces in n moment, devouring the
yet warm and bleeding flesh and in
stantly seeking, with hunger insatia-
bic, for q fresh victim. .
This creature would, without hest
~tation, devour "A serpent twenty feet in
length, and SO tremendous would be
its voracity that it would eat twenty
or thirty such snakes in the course of
a day. With one grasp Of its teeth
and a single clutch Of its claws it could
disembowel an OK. and. if it should
happen to enter a fold of sheep or an
Enclosure of cattle, it would kill them
all for the mere lust of slaughter. Let
two such animals meet and how ter
rifle would be the battle! Fear is a
feeling which the mole seems never 10
entertain. In conflict with an adver-
sary Of its own kind its efforts are ex-
clusively directed to injuring its OPP
poneut, without regard for its own
protection. An examination of the
skeleton of u mole will repay your
trouble, so wonderful is its adaptation
of structure to its manner of life. 1t
looks like a veritable machine for Dig
ging, and it has several accessory
bones which are not found in any
other living beast, being discovered
only in certain fossil forms.
"The mole is gifted with incredible
activity. 1t pursues the earth worms
on which it chiefly feeds with an en-
caught one, it devours the prey like a
starving tiger, Tending it with its pow
erful claws and teeth. Occasionally it
will capture Il bird and tear it to- frag-
ments, devouring eagerly the bleeding
flesh. During the latter part of June
Mr.. Mole falls in love, and in his at
tachments he is as furious as in all
other phases of his nature. At that
period he a not meet another male
of his kind without fighting, very often
TO the death. He constructs a bridal
chamber for his chosen spouse at the
intersection of two of his tunnels, so
that there is more than one way of es-
cap for herself anil the young ones
in case danger threatens. This CHAM
Der is partly filled with dried grass for
a couch, and it is always at some
distance from Mr.. Mole's dwelling
proper.
THE subterranean dwelling Of Mr..
Mole is a wonderful labyrinth. No
human being could very well find his
way about in it, supposing that its di-
mansions were sufficiently magnitied
To admit his passage through the maze
of tunnels. The latter compose a net
work as complicated as that of the
ewers of n metropolis. II must not
be imagined that the animal burrows
at random. On the contrary, it works
on a well-defined system. though how
it forms its burrows in such admirable
straight lines, always laboring in the
blacklist darkness. is a mystery. The
home of the beast is in u hillock, un-
der the shelter of some tree or bank,
so as to be inconspicuous. Here is its
center of operations, from which regu-
lar roads lead off In different direc-
tons to its feeding grounds. II you
dig into the hillock you discover a
very elaborate and wonderful struc-
ture.
The central department of the
dwelling is a nearly spherical cham
Der, around which run circular pas
sages, n on a level with the ceiling
and the other at some height above.
The upper circle is much smaller than
the lower one. Five short and nearly
vertical passages connect these gal
leries with each other. When Mr.. Mole
enters his house from one Of the tun-
nels he has first to get into the lower
gallery. thence TO ascend into the up
per gallery and so descend into the
chamber. However, there is another
entrance TO the chamber from below
by a passage which dips downward
from the middle Of the spherical room,
then curving upward and finally OPEN
ing into one of the bigger tunnels or
high-roads. OF these highroads there
are seven or eight.
Owing to the peculiar habits of the
mole, comparatively little is known
about the animal and its ways. The
use OF this labyrinth and complicated
system of tunnels, the latter usually
extending over, or rather rather under,
a very great space of ground, is in
some degree a mystery. One object
of the arrangement is doubtless that
the owner in case of alarm shall be
able to make his escape. By the con-
tinual pressure of the creatures fur
the walls o. the chamber and passages
are rendered smooth, hard and poll
ished, so tha. the roof will not fall in
even after the most severe storm. The
mole can swim excellently and IL often
sinks wells for the purpose of getting
water 10 drink. In fact, il possesses
most varied accomplishments, aud l
consider that in point of ferocity, ac-
tiyity and ~voracity ii is superior even
to the great cats of the tropics"