Outings at Odd TimesAbbott, Charles C. (Charles Conrad)
History
Outings at Odd Times
Abbott, Charles C. (Charles Conrad)
Natural history -- Outdoor books
I had noticed that the narrow, tube-like channel of the obliterated
ditch grew less defined as I dug in one direction, so I paced off a rod
in advance and made a cross-section. Here it could not be traced, but a
half-dozen very small openings, circular in outline, could be seen, and
through some of these the water slowly trickled. I found a single
mole-cricket, and attribute to it and others of its kind these little
tunnels. Certainly more persistent burrowers do not exist, and I have
known them to cause mischief to a mill-dam which was attributed to
musk-rats. “They are,” says Prof. Riley, “the true moles of the insect
world, and make tortuous galleries, destroying everything that comes in
their way, cutting through roots, and eating the fine underground twigs,
as well as the worms and grubs, which they meet with during their
burrowings.”
A volume would not suffice to enumerate the invertebrate or insect-like
life that lived in this dark passage-way beneath the sod; nor do we
wonder at finding such low forms groping in utter darkness; but why
higher animals that are found, and far more frequently, in the open air
and sunlit waters should delight to crowd these same gloomy quarters, is
a problem not so easily solved. We are left to conjecture, and
invariably do so, and are often overwhelmed when an army of objections
confront our theories. Notwithstanding this, there is a pleasure in
reopening an obliterated ditch, in letting in the light upon a hidden
highway, for by so doing we also let in light upon ourselves, seeing
with clearer vision the wonderful world about us.
Weathercocks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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