BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.SC. 531 



the burrows in firm soil is perfectly clean and apparently without 

 any special lining, and never in any case have I observed extraneous 

 matter such as leaves, which might have been dragged in from 

 the exterior. The plough generally cuts off a few inches of the 

 tails of the big worms or lifts the earth right off them, but with 

 the smaller worms one may find as many examples with the anterior 

 end uppermost as not. 



On page 110 of Darwin's book will be found an account of the 

 depths — 3 to 8 feet — to which European worms burrow. In our 

 dry climate it might be expected that worms, at any rate in dry 

 seasons, would extend their burrows to even greater depths, and 

 possibly it may be so. At Burrawang I do not think the worms 

 usually burrow to as deep as 6 or 8 feet, though I have only one 

 piece of negative evidence to offer in support of this opinion. 

 Before my later visits a road leading to an adjacent farm had been 

 partially made, and the crown had been taken off the top of a 

 small rise for a width of perhaps 10 yards, and to a depth in the 

 deepest part of about 3 feet. During my last visit the road was 

 approaching completion, and two men were deepening the cutting 

 to a depth of four or five feet more. I made several visits to the 

 cutting, and saw some tons of earth excavated, yet I could not 

 find a single worm nor see any castings. Either the worms had 

 all been removed in the preliminary excavation, or the soil just 

 there was devoid of worms. The traffic over the road was too 

 insignificant to cause worms beneath the surface any discomfort, 

 and in the paddock on the other side of the fence not more than 

 50 yards distant I had seen the plough turn them up in abundance, 

 so that it is difficult to believe that this particular patch of 

 very deep and good soil was destitute of worms, and it seems 

 plausible to suppose that they were removed in the first instance. 

 On questioning one of the men he told me that the worms were 

 not found in the sub-soil, but whether his experience was limited 

 to this particular instance I do not know. 



During my last visit several inches of rain fell in three days, and 

 though on a road in one paddock I saw a few small worms and 



