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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



four inches, and on the other side of two and a half inches, ahove the 

 general level. 



Thus, evidence is gathered that small objects left on the surface of 

 the land where worms abound soon get buried, and that large stones 



Grass 



Fig. 5. Section through one of the Fallen Druidical Stones at Stoxehenge, showing 

 how much it had sunk into the Ground. Scale one half inch to one foot. 



sink slowly downward by the same means. Every step of the process 

 could be followed. Among the most striking features of the case are 

 the straightness and regularity of the lines formed by the imbedded 

 objects in cases where they have covered a considerable surface, and 

 their parallelism with the surface of the land, for this parallelism shows 

 how equally the worms must have worked. The specific gravity of the 

 objects does not affect their rate of sinking, as could be seen by porous 

 cinders, burned marl, chalk, and quartz pebbles having all sunk to the 

 same depth within the same time ; and many considerations seem to 

 show that the sinking could not have been sensibly aided by the weight 

 of the objects. 



^zf^'^llll^l'-l^lll!,'- 1 >'. 1 n 



Open trench. 



\V 



West 



J 



Fig. 6. Sectiob THROUGH the Foundations of a Buried Roman Vii.i.a at Abibgeb. A A, 

 etable mold : B, dark earth full of stones, thirteen inches in thickness : ('. black mold ; 1), 

 broken mortar; EC, black mold; F F, undisturbed sub-soil ; G, tessera;; H, concrete ; I, nat- 

 ure unknown ; W, buried wall. 



