Page:The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881).djvu/165

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Chap. III.
UNDERMINED BY WORMS.
151

side, forming a shallow crateriform hollow, was left, the inner surface of which consisted of fine black mould, excepting where the more protuberant parts rested on the brick- rubbish. A transverse section of this stone, together with its bed, drawn from measurements made after it had been displaced, is here given on a scale of ½ inch to a foot (Fig. 6). The turf-covered border which

Fig. 6.

Transverse section across a large stone, which had lain on a grass-field for 35 years. A A, general level of the field. The underlying brick rubbish has not been represented. Scale ½ inch to one foot.

sloped up to the stone, consisted of fine vegetable mould, in one part 7 inches in thickness. This evidently consisted of worm-castings, several of which had been recently ejected. The whole stone had sunk in the thirty-five years, as far as I could judge, about 1½ inch; and this must have been due