OCR Text |
Show 181 BURIAL OF THE REMAINS CnAP. IV. places has certainly been accumulated by wonns, yet it seemed hardly posRible that this 1nould could have been brought up by worms fi-om beneath the apparently sound floor. It seemed also extremely improbable that the thick walls, surrounding the room and still united to the concrete, had been undermined by worms, and bad thus been caused to sink, being afterwards covered up by their castiugs. I therefore at first concluded that all the fine mould above the ruins had been washed down from the upper parts of the field · but we shall soon see that this conclu-sion 'w as certainly erroneous, though much fiqe earth is known to be washed down from the upper part of the field in its present ploughed state during heavy rains. ..Although the concrete floor did not at first appear to have been anywhere penetrated by worms, yet by the next morning little cakes of the trodden-down earth bad been lifted up by worms over the mouths of seven burrows, which passed through the softer parts of the naked concrete, or between the interstices of the tesserre. On the third morning twenty-five burrows were counted; UrrAr. IV. OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 185 ant1 by suddenly lifting up the little cakes of earth, four worms were seen in the act of quickly retreating. Two castings were thrown up during the third night on the floor, and the e were of large size. The season was not favourable for the full activity of worms, and the weather had lately been hot and dry, so that most of the worms now lived at a considerable depth. In digging the two trenches many open burrows and some worms were encountered at between 30 and 4.0 inches beneath the surface ; but at a greater depth they became rare. One worm, however, was cut through at 48~, and another at 5li inches beneath the surface. A fresh humus-lined burrow was also met with at a depth of 57 and another at 66! inches. ..At greater depths than this, neither burrows nor worms were seen. As I wished to learn how many worms lived beneath the floor of the atrium-a space of about 14 by 9 feet-Mr. Farrer was so kind as to make observations for me, during the next seven weeks, by which time the worms in the surrounding country were in full activity, and were work.- |