8 TRANSACTIONS ElVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



amount of mud they imbibe with the water they drink, 

 and the quantity they carry away on their skins gives 

 rather startling- results, and no doubt they are widened 

 and deepened, if not originated, by these means. In the 

 decay of organic deposits Bacteria play a very important 

 part, and quite recently it has been suggested that they 

 have much to do with the breaking up of inorganic rocks. 



Man's work as a destroyer can be easily overstated. 

 It is true he ploughs the ground and prepares the soil for 

 floods to carry it away, he removes mountains and honey- 

 combs the land in search of minerals, bnt compared with 

 the more widespread influences of smaller forces his 

 efforts are but feeble. 



In Transport or Carrying, organic forces cannot take 

 rank with stream, wind, sea and other natural agents. 

 Still the investigations of Darwin show how great is the 

 work of earthworms in removing soil from one place to 

 another. The common Lugworm on our sandy shores 

 cannot be less effective. On the veldt of South Africa the 

 ant has raised myriads of mounds of earth each particle 

 of which has been brought from below the surface and 

 piled into heaps three, four, 20 or even •'!() feet high. 



Man too builds his pyramids, his aqueducts, his 

 cities, and carries coal, salt and other rocks even across 

 the seas. 



AVe have seen that in Disintegration and Transport 

 organic forces cannot hold their own with other natural 

 forces, but when we come to Accumulation they exceed 

 all others both in interest and importance. This is 

 mainly accomplished by the secretion of certain materials 

 which serve for protection or support dining life, and 

 when the organism dies such parts as are stable in com- 

 position remain to form deposits. The principal 

 substances formed in this wav are Carbonate of Lime, 



