274 DENUDATION OF THE LAND Chap. YI. 



very porous, and the water in them is often 

 slightly muddy ; when such little pools have 

 dried, the leaves and blades of grass at their 

 bottoms are generally coated with a thin layer 

 of mud. This mud I believe is derived in 

 large part from recently ejected castings. 



Dr. King informs me that the majority of 

 the before described gigantic castings, which 

 he found on a fully exposed, bare, gravelly 

 knoll on the Nilgiri Mountains in India, had 

 been more or less weathered by the previous 

 north-east monsoon ; and most of them pre- 

 sented a subsided appearance. The worms 

 here eject their castings only during the rainy 

 season ; and at the time of Dr. King's visit no 

 rain had fallen for 110 days. He carefully 

 examined the ground between the place 

 where these huge castings lay, and a little 

 water-course at the base of the knoll, and 

 nowhere was there any accumulation of fine 

 earth, such as would necessarily have been 

 left by the disintegration of the castings if 

 they had not been wholly removed. He 

 therefore has no hesitation in asserting that 

 the whole of these huge castings are annually 

 washed during the two monsoons (when 



