15 



When a dry season commences they go in pur- 

 suit of moisture, are then to be found under stones— 

 on the north side of fences — and in low situations. 

 It is probable that many of them perish during a long 

 drought, especially those that cannot find retreats 

 sufficiently humid. This opinion derives support 

 from the following fact. After the weather has con- 

 tinued dry for many weeks, then succeeded by heavy 

 falls of rain, they are not to be found in half the 

 numbers that they were before the commencement 

 of the drought:* had they continued to descend so 

 as to keep in the humid earth, we should have them in 

 numbers equal to what we had before the beginning of 

 the dry season— as it is well ascertained, that they 

 always keep near the surface when there is humidity. 



I wished to determine by an experiment, whether 

 dry earth would prove destructive to them. I accor- 

 dingly dried some earth, and put a number of worms 

 into it J in the space of twelve hours, every symptom 

 of vitality disappeared. They were then put into 

 moist earth, and permitted to remain in it several 

 hours, without an)" symptoms of being revived. 

 Hence we may infer, these animals cannot live with- 



• I have been informed by persons that are in the habit of dig-g'ing' 

 the eartli to a considerable deptli, at all seasons of the jear, that they 

 never observe them any considerable distance below the surface ; 

 probably if tliey were to descend, the impurity of the air would prove 

 fatal to them. 



