306 OBSERVATIONS ON WORMS. 



Stratton, in that county, for the first information I 

 received of this phenomenon, which seemed so singu- 

 lar an occurrence, that, on a late visit into Glouces- 

 tershire, I went to Fairford myself, and called upon 

 Mr. Samuel Vines, of that place, the individual by 

 whom it had been noticed, in order to examine the 

 spot, and obtain further particulars. The result of 

 my inquiries quite satisfied me as to the accuracy of 

 the facts reported to me, which I proceed to detail. 

 Mr. Vines informed me that there had been an ex- 

 tremely heavy rain at Fairford, accompanied by 

 thunder, about the middle of the day ; and that a 

 little earlier there had been even a water-spout at 

 Castle Eaton, a small village situate about three 

 miles south-west of Fairford, from whence the storm 

 came ; being, as it would seem, the residue of the 

 water-spout in some measure spent before its arrival 

 at the place last-mentioned. On going into his gar- 

 den immediately after the rain had ceased, between 

 the hours of three and four in the afternoon, he first 

 observed some of these worms on the top of the box 

 edging by the side of the walk ; he afterwards ob- 

 served others, both on the soil of the borders, and 

 on the walk itself; and, on carrying the search fur- 

 ther, soon discovered that they were scattered over 

 the whole of the garden, three or four on the aver- 

 age being to be met with in every square foot. He 

 next noticed that they were not confined to the 

 ground, but that they were equally abundant on the 

 leaves of the potatoes, and other crops of vegetables 

 in the garden ; and even upon the tops of the fruit- 

 trees, as high as he examined, certainly seven or 



