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Show 146 AMOUNT OF EARTH CHAP. HI. left. On removing, in 1877, the thin overlying layer of turf, the small flag-stones, all in their proper places, were found covered by an inch of fine mould. Two recently published accounts of substances strewed on the surface of pasture-land, having become buried through the action of worms, may be here noticed. The Rev. I-I. C. Key had a ditch cut in a field, over which coal~ashes had been spread, as it was believed, eighteen years before; and on the clean-cut perpendicular sides of the ditch, at a depth of at least seven inches, there coulJ be seen, for a length of 60 yards," a distinct, very "even, narrow line of coal-ashes, mixed with "sn1all coal, perfectly parallel with the top" sward."* This parallelism and tho length of the section give interest to the case. Seeondly, Mr. Dancer statest that crushed bones had been thickly strewed over a field; and "smnc years ''afterwards "these were found" several inches ''below the surface, at a uniform depth." The Rev. Mr. Zincke informs 1nc that he has lately had an orchard dug to the unusual depth of 4 feet. The upper 18 inches consisted * 'Nature,' November 1877, p. 2 . t 'l'roc.' Phil. Soc.' of Manchester, 1877, p. 24:7. CuAr. IlL BROUGHT UP BY WORMS. ] 4.7 of dark-coloured vegetable mould, and tht> next 18 inches of sanely loam, containing i1 the lower part many rolled pieces of sanJ. stone, with some bits of brick and tile, probab1) of Roman or·igin, as remains of this pcrioc~ have boon found close by. The sanely loam rested on an indurated ferruginous pan o1 yellow clay, on the surface of which two perfect colts wcr found. If, as seems probable, tho celts ~oro originally loft on tl10 surface of tbc land, they have since been covcrcJ np with earth 3 feet in thickness, a]] of which has probably p~1sseJ through th e; bodies of worllls, excepting tho stones whicl· may have been scattered on the surface at different times, together with manure or Ly other moans. It is difficult otherwi c to understand the source of tho 18 inches of sandy loam, which differed from the overlying dark vegetable 1nould, after both h:td been burnt, only in being of a brighter red colour, and in not being quite so fine-grained. But on this view we must suppose that the carbon in vegetable mould, when it ]jes at some ljttle depth beneath the surf~tce and does not continually receive decaying vegetable matter L 2 |
