WORMS. 



65 



most infested by them the Europeans wear leech-gaiters, as they are called, 

 as a protection — high overalls of india rubber, or of some very thick ma- 

 terial, which cover the shoes and are secured above the knees. I protected 

 myself in the jungle by painting a ring of carbolic acid round above my 

 high hunting-boots, and this line the leeches never crossed. In some parts 

 of the island, however, the swarms of leeches make any long stay almost 

 impossible, as do the ticks in other places." 



A second group of segmented worms is distinguished by the presence 

 of bristles or spines on the joints of the body, and these spines may be 

 either few and small or numerous and large. In the first division they 

 seem to arise directly from the body itself, while in the second they are 

 seated on more or less prominent projections which may be so large as to 

 act as feet or oars. 



Most prominent of the forms with few spines are the familiar earth- 

 or angle-worms, which abound almost everywhere. Our native species are 

 small, but very recently an enormous species has turned up at the Cape of 

 Good Hope. How long it really is, is as yet unsettled. One account says 

 that the animal had already stretched to the length of six feet, and what 

 its further capacities in this direction were time alone could determine. 

 The account further states that it is a loathsome animal, which can readily 

 be believed. Long and familiarly as our native species are known there 

 has never been the slightest attempt to classify them. They figure always 

 as Lumbricus terrestris, but there is not a person who really knows any- 

 thing about our forms except that we have several distinct species. 



Besides affording bait for the angler, earthworms have an importance 

 which has only recently been realized. The late Mr. Darwin shortly 

 before his death published a work on this lowly animal, which is doubly 

 interesting, not only as a record of long and careful experiments and 

 observations, but as showing the really great importance of these forms. 

 As is well known, the angle-worm makes its burrows in the earth, descend- 

 ing at times of drouth or cold to a distance where it is not affected by 

 these conditions, while in warm and moist weather it lives near the sur- 

 face. Its time of greatest activity is at night. Then it excavates its 

 burrow, bringing up the earth to the surface ; then it goes after its food ; 

 and then it visits its neighbors and friends. 



Its food is largely vegetable, and one can frequently see the blades of 

 grass which it has tried to drag into its hole. It also swallows the earth 

 m which it lives, and in the morning after a damp night one can see the 

 coiled piles of earth near its holes which have passed through the intestine 

 of the worm. Here is where the great importance of the earthworm 

 comes in, for by this eating of earth soil is made. Material from below is 



