1 882.] 
341 
Epping Forest. 
has been rain, after which their dead bodies or casts are 
found, due to travelling worms that had dropped into the pit. 
During the excavation of the earns of Loughcrew, Co. Meath, 
not a worm was to be seen ; but after the floors of the cham- 
bers had been opened to the air and rain, innumerable worms 
flocked in, attracted by the rich soil in the floors. 
When making excavations in the large crannog, Lough 
Rea, Co. Galway, it was found that any cut below the surface 
of the lake had to be bottomed at once, as otherwise the 
waters oozed in and flooded it. Therefore the longest cut 
made was opened as follows : — The first day it was opened 
the full length about a foot below the surface of the lake, 
and on our return the second day the water in it was bailed 
out; after which the trench was bottomed. After the trench 
was bailed out innumerable worms were found in it. These 
worms evidently could not come up from below, therefore 
they must have tumbled into the trench, having come out of 
the rich surface of the island, in which they were very 
numerous. 
(To be continued.) 
IV. EPPING FOREST FROM A NATURALIST’S 
POINT OF VIEW. 
By Frank Fernseed. 
TAPPING FOREST has, it appears, been formally re- 
(JSL deemed from the hands of encroachers, secured 
against all future interference, and is now thrown 
open for ever to the people of England. All this having 
been duly done, I may be permitted to ask what has thus 
been recovered and secured, and in what condition is it to be 
preserved for the use and gratification of future generations ? 
These are questions of some importance to the public at 
large, and it is fitting that they should be answered aright. 
There are, I am told, about 6000 acres of land which can 
never be contaminated by the touch of the building specu- 
lator and his familiar imps. But it must be remembered 
