164 



WEIGHT OF EARTH 



Chap. TIL 



Ounces. 



3-98 



castings were dried (excepting in one specified 

 instance) by exposure during many days to 

 the sun or before a hot fire. 



Weight of the Castings accumulated at the mouth 



OF A SINGLE BuRKOW. 



(1.) Down, Kent (sub-soil red clay, full of flints, over- 

 lying the chalk). The largest casting which I 

 could find on the flanks of a steep valley, the 

 sub-soil being here shallow. In this one case, the 

 casting was not well dried .. 



(2.) Down. — Largest casting which I could find (con- 

 sisting chiefly of calcareous matter), on extremely 

 poor pasture land at the bottom of the valley 

 mentioned under (1.) 



(3.) Down. — A large casting, but not of unusual size, 

 from a nearly level field, poor pasture, laid down in 

 grass about 35 years before . . 



(4.) Down. — Average weight of 11 not large castings j 

 ejected on a sloping surface on my lawn, after they I 

 had suffered some loss of weight from being exposed j 

 during a considerable length of time to rain . . J 



(5.) Near Nice in France. — Average weight of 12' 

 castings of ordinary dimensions, collected by Dr. 

 King on land which had not been mown for a long 

 time and where worms abounded, viz., a lawn pro- 

 tected by shrubberies, near the sea ; soil sandy and > 

 calcareous ; these castings had been exposed for some 

 time to rain, before being collected, and must have 

 lost some weight by disintegration, but they still re- 

 tained their form .. .. .. .. ..j 



(6.) The heaviest of the above twelve castings 



(7.) Lower Bengal. — Average weight of 22 castings, 

 collected by Mr. J. Scott, and stated by him to have 

 been thrown up in the course of one or two nights 



(8.) The heaviest of the above 22 castings .. 



(9.) Nilgiri Mountains, S. India ; average weight of 

 the 5 largest castings collected by Dr. King. They 

 had been exposed to the rain of the last monsoon, 

 and must have lost some weight 



(10.) The heaviest of the above 5 castings .. 



In this table we see that castings which had 



3*87 



1*22 



0*7 



1-37 



1-76 

 1-24 

 2-09 



3-15 



4-34 



