CHAP. II THEIR WIDE DISTRIBUTION. 123 



abound in Iceland, and are known to exist 

 in the West Indies, St. Helena, Madagascar, 

 New Caledonia and Tahiti. In the Antarctic 

 regions, worms from Kerguelen Land have 

 been described by Ray Lankester; and I 

 found them in the Falkland Islands. How 

 they reach such isolated islands is at present 

 quite unknown. They are easily killed by 

 salt-water, and it does not appear probable 

 that young worms or their egg-capsules could 

 be carried in earth adhering to the feet or 

 beaks of land-birds. Moreover Kerguelen 

 Land is not now inhabited by any land-bird. 



In this volume we arc chiefly concerned with 

 the earth cast up by worms, and I have gleaned 

 a few facts on this subject with respect to 

 distant lands. Worms throw up plenty of 

 castings in the United States. In Venezuela, 

 castings, probably ejected by species of 

 Urochaeta, are common in the gardens and 

 fields, but not in the forests, as I hear from 

 Dr. Ernst of Caracas. He collected 156 

 castings from the court-yard of his house, 

 having an area of 200 square yards. They 

 varied in bulk from half a cubic centimeter to 

 five cubic centimeters, and were on an average 



