150 AMOUNT OF EARTH Chap. III. 



from above, loses its dark colour in the course 

 of centuries ; but whether this is probable I 

 do not know. 



Worms appear to act in the same manner 

 in New Zealand as in Europe ; for Professor J. 

 von Haast has described * a section near the 

 coast, consisting of mica-schist, " covered by 

 "5 or 6 feet of loess, above which about 1 2 

 "inches of vegetable soil had accumulated/' 

 Between the loess and the mould there was 

 a layer from 3 to 6 inches in thickness, 

 consisting of " cores, implements, flakes, and 

 " chips, all manufactured from hard basaltic 

 " rock." It is therefore probable that the 

 aborigines, at some former period, had left 

 these objects on the surface, and that they 

 had afterwards been slowly covered up by 

 the castings of worms. 



Farmers in England are well aware that 

 objects of all kinds, left on the surface of 

 pasture-land, after a time disappear, or, as 

 they say, work themselves downwards. How 

 powdered lime, cinders, and heavy stones, 

 can work down, and at the same rate, 

 through the matted roots of a grass-covered 



* ' Trans, of the New Zealand Institute,' vol. xii., 1880, p. 152. 



