River Mole in 1613. In John Speed's 1611 map of Surrey this stretch of the river is denoted by a series of hills accompanied by the legend "The river runneth under". However the river's name is unlikely to have derived from this behaviour: The "Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names" suggests that "Mole" either comes from the Latin "mola" (a mill) or is a back-formation from "Molesey" (Mul's island). In John Rocque's 1768 map of Surrey, the name "Moulsey River" is used. In common with much of the rest of the Weald, the earliest evidence of human settlement along the Upper Mole
Eastern mole and the second part, "mole" is from the Middle English "molle" which in turn is related to another Middle English word, "mold-warpe", which means "earth-thrower". Fossil remains have been reported from the upper Ohio Valley in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and Pleistocene cave faunas in Texas. Moles till and form soil, feed on destructive insects such as cutworms and Japanese beetles, and dig tunnels that aerate the soil and permit moisture to penetrate deeper soil layers. The pelt is small and does not take dyes well; it is thus of no commercial interest to the fur industry. When moles disfigure