a river in Surry, which has taken its name from running under ground. It first disappears at Boxhill, near Dorking, in the county of Surry, and emerges again near Leatherhead.

See TALPA, MAMMALIA Index; and for methods of destroying, see VERMIN, Destruction of.

in Midwifery, a mass of fleshy matter, of a spherical spherical figure, generated in the uterus, and sometimes mistaken for a child. See MIDWIFERY.

MOLLE, or Mark. See NAEVUS.

MOLLE, in Architecture, a massive work formed of large stones laid in the sea by means of coffer dams, extended either in a right line or an arch of a circle, before a port, which it serves to close; to defend the vessels in it from the impetuosity of the waves, and to prevent the passage of ships without leave. Thus we say the mole of the harbour of Messina, &c.

Mole is sometimes also used to signify the harbour itself.

Mole, (moles), among the Romans, was also used for a kind of mausoleum, built in manner of a round tower on a square base, insulate, encompassed with columns, and covered with a dome.—The mole of the emperor Adrian, now the castle of St Angelo, was the greatest and most stately of all the moles. It was crowned with a brazen pine apple, wherein was a golden urn containing the ashes of the emperor.

Mole Cricket. See Gryllotalpa, Entomology Index.

Mole Hills. These little hillocks of earth are a very great prejudice to the pasture lands, not only in wasting so much of the land as they cover, but in obstructing the scythe in mowing. In the west of England they use a peculiar instrument for the breaking up of these. It is a flat board, very thick, and of about eight inches in diameter, into which there is fastened a perpendicular handle of three or four feet long. It has four broad and sharp iron teeth at the front, which readily cut through the hill, and spread the earth it consists of; and behind there is a large knob proper for breaking the clods with, if there are any. Some use a spade, or other common instrument, in the place of this, but not so well. There is, however, a much better instrument even than this, for destroying these hills, where they are in very great numbers. This is a kind of horse machine; it has a sharp iron about three feet over, and with a strong back.—It is about four or five inches broad, and has two long handles for a horse to be harnessed to, and a cross bar of iron to strengthen it at the bottom of the handles, reaching from the one handle to the other. The middle of this cross bar is furnished with one, two, or more sharp pieces of iron like small ploughshares, to cut the mole hills into two, three, or more parts. The iron behind is of a semicircular figure. A single horse is harnessed to this machine, and a boy must be employed to drive it, and a man to hold and guide it; the sharp irons or shares are the first things that meet the hill, they run through it, break its texture, and cut it into several parts; and the circular iron following immediately behind them, cuts up the whole by the roots, and leaves the land level. This instrument will destroy as many mole hills in one day as a common labourer can do in eight, and would be of very great advantage to the kingdom if brought into general use.