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Show 188 BURIAL OF THE REMAINS CHAP. IV. Sept. 18th ; 43 fresh holes, 8 castings ; all defaced. The number of castings on the surroundinofields was now very large. Sept. 19th ; 40 holes, 8 castings ; all defaced. Sept. 22nd ; 43 holes, only a few fresh castings ; all defaced. Sept. 23rd ; 44 holes, 8 castings. 8ept. 25th ; 50 holes, no record of the number of castings. Oct. 13th; 61 holes, no record of the number of castings. After an interval of three years, Mr. Farrer, at my request, again looked at the concrete floor, and found the worms still at work. Knowing what great muscular power worms possess, and seeing how soft the concrete was in many parts, I was not surprised at its having been penetrated by their burrows; but it is a more surprising fact that the mortar between the rough stones of the thick walls, surrounding the rooms, was found by Mr. Farrer to have been penetrated by worms. On August 26th, that is, five days after the ruins had been exposed, he observed four CHAP. IV. OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS. 189 open burrows on the broken snmmit of the eastern wall (W in Fig. 8) ; and, on September 15th, other burrows similarly situated were seen. It should also be noted that iu the perpendicular side of the trench (which was much deeper than is represented in Fig. 8) three recent burrows were seen, which ran obliquely far down beneath the base of the old wall. ·\V e thus see that many worms lived beneath the floor and the walls of the atrium at the time when the excavations were made~ and that they afterwards almost daily bronght up earth to the surface from a considerable depth. There is not the slightest reason to doubt that worms have act.ed in this manner ever since the period when the concrete was sufficiently decayed to allow them to penetrate it; and even before that period thEy would have lived beneath the floor, as soon as it became pervious to rain, so that the soil beneath was kept damp. The floor and the walls mtist therefore have been continually undermined ; and fine earth must have bee1t heaped on thmn during many centuries, perhaps for a thousand years. If the burrows |