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Show 264 DENUDATION OF THE LAND CHAP. VI. still be detected. On another occasion, after rain which was never heavy, but which lasted for 18 hours, all the castings on this same gently inclined lawn had lost their vermiform structure; and they had flowed, so that fully two-thirds of the ejected earth lay below the mouths of the burrows. These observations led me to make others with more care. Eight castings were found on my lawn, where the grass-blades are fine and close together, and three others on a field with coarse grass. The inclination of the surface at the eleven places where these castings were collected varied between 4 ° 30' and 17° 30'; the mean of the eleven inclinations being 9° 26'. The length of the castings in the direction of the slope was first measured with as much accuracy as their irregularities would permit. It was found possible to make these measurements within about t of an inch, but one of the castings was too irregular to admit of measurement. The average length in the direction of the slope of the remaining ten castings was 2·03 inches. The castings were then divided with a knife into two parts along a horizontal line passing through the mouth CHAP. VI. AIDED BY WORMS. 265 of the burrow, which was discovered by slicing off the turf ; and all the ejected earth was separately collected, namely, the part above the hole and the part below. Afterwards these two parts were weighed. In every case there was much more earth below than above ; the mean weight of that above being 103 grains, and of that below 205 grains ; so that the latter was very nearly double the former. As on level ground castings are comnwnJy thrown up almost equally round the mouths of the burrows, this difference in weight indicates the amount of ejected earth which had flowed down the slope. But very many more observations would be requisite to arrive at any general result; for the nature of the vegetation and other accidental circumstances, such as the heaviness of the rain, the direction and force of the wind, &c., appear to be more important in determining the quantity of the earth which flows down a slope than its angle. Thus with four castings on my lawn (included in the above eleven) where the mean slope was 7° 19 ', the difference in the amount of earth above and below the burrows was greater than with three other |