Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-02-18
The Mole a Nature Miracle


Garrett y. Hervtaa.
You would not like TO be born mole and live
bindy underground. spending your life making end
less burrows with spade-shaped hnnds and snout
having a sharp bone at the end for a borer. Yet
mole 20 be a very happy anirnal-perhaps hap
pier than the average man-and nature has bestowed
upon gifts admirable any have, except our
brains
There is great mystery about moles. They live
in the dark underground but yet they are sun wor-
shippers Just at the hour OF when the sun IL
at it's highest point the sky. the mole often comes
to the surface II is habit Of the race, kind OF
religious Observance, one might think
Seldom does the mole willingly make its appear
ance In the upper world at any other time OF the day
but at that moment they OF their own accord
This fact. which has been observed again and again.
has been explained by naturalists.
Is II a reminder OF a time when moes lived like
most other animals top OF the ground7 Is there
IN them a racial memory which irresistibly leads
them back intervals 20 the OF their ancestral
paradise7
Man himself began by worshiping the sun; that
his first religion. The traces of ancient wor
ship all over the earth wherever man has been
It's influence can be seen yet today In many re-
lgious ceremonias images constructions. observances
and ideas The traditional crienaton chat S. FACING
OF the great Christian cathedrais OF the splendid
Egyptian and Greek temples Is a survival Of the
cient custom Of fronting such buildings with refer
TO particular aspect OF the sun. Is the
trance gallery OF the oles similar instructive
vival7 This question not be 20 altogether fool
ish Il looks The whole active life OF the mole Is
subteranean. II IL born underground and passes SITS
life underground. As far as the means OF livelihood
concerned Il appears to be independent OF the
upper world
II finds all Il needs to eat and all II needs 70
make itself comfortable without resort TO things
above ground The roots OF plants furnish with the
fine lining that for it's and its burrows
running close under the surface that they swell
the earth above them in winding ridges, suf-
icenty aerated by the air that leaks down through
the loose. open soil Earthworms and insect larvae
furnish all the food n needs
When Il drives its subterranean ways along a line
OF springing garden plants. under plot. II
finds what II wants in the matter of food and material
without needing out into the daylight why then
at high noon does IL out for other appar.
ent object than TO look at the SUM- TO enjoy its
genial touohf We at least maginatvely. call the
sun the moles god.
But remembering the common belief that a mole
Il blind. may ask; How Il the SUM- The
myth OF the blindness OF moles has been brushed
away Some species perhaps cannot see but most OF
them can Their eyes are very small and hidden in
the fine hair. but they serve organs OF vision.
stl. they have very little OF them under.
ground Any lealings Of daylight that may penetrate
there be extremely faint. and II their eyes were
intended enable them with little illumlna-
ton they ought TO be large and obstruction
whereas they minute and matched with hair. But
eyes particularly well suited an occa
sionai look at the binding sun
No animal Is more wonderfully adapted to its kind
OF life than is the mole Moleskin IL for
exquisite smoohness and softness The finest velvet
cannot bear companion with II. This IL evidently
provision of nature for enabling the animal 10
rapidly through It's galleries without Inn
pediment friction. going backward forward with
equal It fits its burrow like piston pushes
itself swiftly with hind feet The burrows nests
too. lined with fine soft. vegetable fibers
| From its point Of view. the mole leads Iuxu-
rous life It's galleries gradually extended often
inersectng in complicated system, that they be-
come IL were, the streets OF a subterranean city
| Not much IL known OF the moles social life but
have read that two moles II confined together will
fight until ths other Is killed. Then victor
turns cannibL and eats his dead enemy So too It Is
said that. when driven by hunger noies will attack
mice, lizards and frogs.
The common mole keeps away from water but the
sarnosed mole which is also abundant likes TO have
Its galleries out under water ditch or creek
bank, and according to DR.. c. c. Abbott Il cannot
be drowned.