No. II.
On the day following my first related excursion, I started early in the
morning, and was rewarded by one sight, which could not otherwise have
been obtained, well worth the sacrifice of an hour or two of sleep.
There may be persons who will smile contemptuously at the idea of a
_man's_ being delighted with such trifles; nevertheless, we are not
inclined to envy such as disesteem the pure gratification afforded by
these simple and easily accessible pleasures. As I crossed an open lot
on my way to the lane, a succession of gossamer spider-webs, lightly
suspended from various weeds and small shrubs, attracted my attention.
The dew which had formed during the night was condensed upon this
delicate lace, in globules of most resplendent brilliance, whose clear
lustre pleased while it dazzled the sight. In comparison with the
immaculate purity of these dew-drops, which reflected and refracted the
morning light in beautiful rays, as the gossamer webs trembled in the
breeze, how poor would appear the most invaluable diamonds that were
ever obtained from Golconda or Brazil! How rich would any monarch be
that could boast the possession of _one_ such, as here glittered in
thousands on every herb and spray! They are exhaled in an hour or two,
and lost; yet they are almost daily offered to the delighted
contemplation of the real lover of nature, who is ever happy to witness
the beneficence of the great Creator, not less displayed in trivial
circumstances, than in the most wonderful of His works.
No particular change was discoverable in the works of my little miners,
except that all the places which had been a second time broken down,
were again repaired, showing that the animal had passed between the
times of my visit; and it may not be uninteresting to observe how the
repair was effected. It appeared, when the animal arrived at the spot
broken open or exposed to the air, that it changed its direction
sufficiently downwards to raise enough of earth from the lower surface
to fill up the opening; this of course slightly altered the direction of
the gallery at this point, and though the earth thrown up was quite
pulverulent, it was so nicely arched as to retain its place, and soon
became consolidated. Having broken open a gallery where the turf was
very close, and the soil tenacious, I was pleased to find the direction
of the chamber somewhat changed: on digging farther with my clasp-knife,
I found a very beautiful cell excavated in very tough clay, deeper than
the common level of the gallery, and towards one side. This little
lodging-room would probably have held a small melon, and was nicely
arched all round. It was perfectly clear, and quite smooth, as if much
used: to examine it fully, I was obliged to open it completely. (The
next day, it was replaced by another, made a little farther to one side,
exactly of the same kind: it was replaced a second time, but when
broken up a third time, it was left in ruins.) As twelve o'clock
approached, my solicitude to discover the little miner increased to a
considerable degree: previous observation led me to believe that about
that time his presence was to be expected. I had trodden down the
gallery for some inches in a convenient place, and stood close by, in
vigilant expectation. My wishes were speedily gratified: in a short time
the flattened gallery began at one end to be raised to its former
convexity, and the animal rapidly advanced. With a beating heart, I
thrust the knife-blade down by the side of the rising earth, and quickly
turned it over to one side, throwing my prize fairly into the sunshine.
For an instant, he seemed motionless from surprise, when I caught and
imprisoned him in my hat. It would be vain for me to attempt a
description of my pleasure in having thus succeeded, small as was my
conquest. I was delighted with the beauty of my captive's fur; with the
admirable adaptation of his diggers, or broad rose-tinted hands; the
wonderful strength of his fore-limbs, and the peculiar suitableness of
his head and neck to the kind of life the Author of nature had designed
him for. It was the shrew-mole, or _scalops canadensis_, whose history
and peculiarities of structure are minutely related in the first volume
of Godman's American Natural History. All my researches never enabled me
to discover a nest, female, or young one of this species. All I ever
caught were males, though this most probably was a mere accident. The
breeding of the scalops is nearly all that is wanting to render our
knowledge of it complete.
This little animal has eyes, though they are not discoverable during its
living condition, nor are they of any use to it above ground. In running
round a room (until it had perfectly learned where all the obstacles
stood), it would uniformly strike hard against them with its snout, and
then turn. It appeared to me as singular, that a creature which fed upon
living earth-worms with all the greediness of a pig, would not destroy
the larvae or maggots of the flesh-fly. A shrew-mole lived for many weeks
in my study, and made use of a gun-case, into which he squeezed himself,
as a burrow. Frequently he would carry the meat he was fed with into his
retreat; and, as it was warm weather, the flies deposited their eggs in
the same place. An offensive odour led me to discover this circumstance,
and I found a number of large larvae, over which the shrew-mole passed
without paying them any attention; nor would he, when hungry, accept of
such food, though nothing could exceed the eager haste with which he
seized and munched earth-worms. Often, when engaged in observing him
thus employed, have I thought of the stories told me, when a boy, of the
manner in which snakes were destroyed by swine: his voracity readily
exciting a recollection of one of these animals, and the poor worms
writhing and twining about his jaws answering for the snakes. It would
be tedious were I to relate all my rambles undertaken with a view to
gain a proper acquaintance with this creature, at all hours of the day,
and late in the evening, before day-light, etc. etc.
Among other objects which served as an unfailing source of amusement,
when resting from the fatigue of my walks, was the little inhabitant of
the brook which is spoken of in the extract made from the "Journal of a
Naturalist," in last week's Friend. These merry swimmers occupied every
little sunny pool in the stream, apparently altogether engaged in sport.
A circumstance (not adverted to in that extract) connected with these
insects, gives them additional interest to a close observer--they are
allied by their structure and nature to those nauseous vermin, the
cimices, or _bed-bugs_; all of which, whether found infesting fruits or
our dormitories, are distinguished by their disgusting odour. But their
distant relatives, called by the boys the _water-witches_ and
_apple-smellers_, the gyrinus natator above alluded to, has a delightful
smell, exactly similar to that of the richest, mellowest apple. This
peculiarly pleasant smell frequently causes the idler many unavailing
efforts to secure some of these creatures, whose activity in water
renders their pursuit very difficult, though by no means so much so as
that of some of the long-legged water-spiders, which walk the waters
dry-shod, and evade the grasp with surprising ease and celerity. What
purposes either of these races serve in the great economy of nature, has
not yet been ascertained, and will scarcely be determined until our
store of _facts_ is far more extensive than at present. Other and still
more remarkable inhabitants of the brook, at the same time, came within
my notice, and afforded much gratification in the observation of their
habits. The description of these we are obliged to defer for the
present, as we have already occupied as much space as can be allowed to
our humble sketches.