222 BUEIAL OF THE BEMAINS CHAP. IV. 



The nature of the beds immediately 

 beneath the vegetable mould in some of the 

 sections is rather perplexing. We see, for 

 instance, in the section of an excavation in a 

 grass meadow (Fig. 14), which sloped from 

 north to south at an angle of 3 40', that the 

 mould on the upper side is only six inches 

 and on the lower side nine inches in thick- 

 ness. But this mould lies on a mass (25 J 

 inches in thickness on the upper side) " of 

 "dark brown mould," as described by Mr. 

 Joyce, " thickly interspersed with small 

 " pebbles and bits of tiles, which present a 

 "corroded or worn appearance." The state 

 of this dark-coloured earth is like that of a 

 field which has long been ploughed, for the 

 earth thus becomes intermingled with stones 

 and fragments of all kinds which have been 

 much exposed to the weather. If during the 

 course of many centuries this grass meadow 

 and the other now cultivated fields have been 

 at times ploughed, and at other times left as 

 pasture, the nature of the ground in the above 

 section is rendered intelligible. For worms 

 will continually have brought up fine earth 

 from below, which will have been stirred 



