210 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody 

 grimalkin. 



" viridi fcEtam Mavortis in antro 



Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic ubera circum 

 Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem 

 Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 

 Mulcere alternos, et corpora flngcre linguS." 



LETTER XXXV 



Selborne, Mag 20, 1777. 

 Dear Sir, 



Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are 

 always poor ; and probably the reason may be because 

 the worms are drowned. The most insignificant insects 

 and reptiles are of much more consequence, and have 

 much more influence in the oeconomy of nature, than 

 the incurious are aware of ; and are mighty in their 

 effect, from their minuteness, which renders them less an 

 object of attention ; and from their numbers and fecun- 

 dity. Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and 

 despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would 

 make a lamentable chasm. For, to say nothing of half 

 the birds, and some quadrupeds which are almost entirely 

 supported by them, worms seem to be the great promoters 

 of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without 

 them, by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and 

 rendering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by 

 drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it ; 

 and, most of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers 

 of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their 

 excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms 

 probably provide new soil for hills and slopes where the 



