The Earthworm in Nature 



IN THE primordial gases of chaos nature initiated her soil-building 

 activities, to be continued uninterrupted down through the ages. 

 The primary parent material of soil is stone. "Soil," wrote 

 Shaler, "is rock material on its way toward the deep. In the 

 age-long weathering and disintegration of stone, nature uses her 

 many forces mechanical, chemical, and vital. Down from the 

 heights, the comminuted particles find their way, to be deposited 

 and mixed for a spell with a vast aggregate of vegetable and ani- 

 mal residues in the low-lying places of the earth, but in the end 

 to find their way on flood-borne waters to the sea. 



The incalculable animal and vegetable life of the sea finds 

 its end in death, to settle into the depths with all the debris from 

 earth, eventually to be compressed into sedimentary rock. 

 Through erosion, mountains are ground down, entire continents 

 leveled. Through great seismic upheavals and the deposition of 

 silt, continents once again rise from the waters, to tower into 

 mountains, hills and plains; again to be slowly worn to powder 

 and redeposited in the sea. 



Thus, in a never-ending cycle, the surface of the earth 

 changes breaking up, becoming soil, becoming vegetable and ani- 

 mal, becoming soil again, over and over ; and finally ending in the 

 deeps, to be compressed into sedimentary rock and once again, 

 through geological ages, to rise above the surface and complete 

 the recurring cycle. 



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