14G AMOUNT OF EAETH Chap. III. 



left. On removing, in 1877, the thin over- 

 lying layer of turf, the small flag-stones, all 

 in their proper places, were found covered 

 by an inch of fine mould. 



Two recently jDublished accounts of sub- 

 stances strewed on the surface of pasture-land, 

 having become buried through the action of 

 worms, may be here noticed. The Eev. 

 H. C. Key had a ditch cut in a field, over 

 which coal-ashes had been spread, as it was 

 believed, eighteen years before ; and on the 

 clean-cut perpendicular sides of the ditch, at a 

 depth of at least seven inches, there could be 

 seen, for a length of 60 yards, " a distinct, very 

 " even, narrow line of coal-ashes, mixed with 

 "small coal, perfectly parallel with the top- 

 sward."* This parallelism and the length of the 

 section gives interest to the case. Secondly, 

 Mr. Dancer statesf that crushed bones had been 

 thickly strewed over a field ; and " some years 

 " afterwards " these were found " several inches 

 ^* below the surface, at a uniform depth." 

 Worms appear to act in the same manner in 

 New Zealand as in Europe ; for Professor J. 



* * Nature,' November 1877, p. 28. 



+ ' Proc. Phil. Soc.' of Manchester, 1877, p. 247, 



