{70} 'Nouvelles Archives du Museum,' tom. viii. 1872, pp. 95, 131.

{71} Morren, in speaking of the earth in the alimentary canals of worms, says, "praesepe cum lapillis commixtam vidi:" 'De Lumbrici terrestris Hist. Nat.' &c., 1829, p. 16.

{72} Perrier, 'Archives de Zoolog. exper.' tom. iii. 1874, p. 419.

{73} Morren, 'De Lumbrici terrestris Hist. Nat.' &c., p. 16.

{74} 'Archives de Zoolog. exper.' tom. iii. 1874, p. 418.

{75} This conclusion reminds me of the vast amount of extremely fine chalky mud which is found within the lagoons of many atolls, where the sea is tranquil and waves cannot triturate the blocks of coral. This mud must, as I believe ('The Structure and Distribution of Coral-Reefs,' 2nd edit. 1874, p. 19), be attributed to the innumerable annelids and other animals which burrow into the dead coral, and to the fishes, Holothurians, &c., which browse on the living corals.

{76} Anniversary Address: 'The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Soc.' May 1880, p. 59.

{77} Mr. James Wallace has pointed out that it is necessary to take into consideration the possibility of burrows being made at right angles to the surface instead of vertically down, in which case the lateral displacement of the soil would be increased.

{78} 'Elements of Geology,' 1865, p. 20.

{79} 'Lecons de Geologie pratique, 1845; cinquieme Lecon. All Elie de Beaumont's arguments are admirably controverted by Prof. A. Geikie in his essay in Transact. Geolog. Soc. of Glasgow, vol. iii. p. 153, 1868.

{80} 'Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth,' p. 107.

{81} Mr. E. Tylor in his Presidential address ('Journal of the Anthropological Institute,' May 1880, p. 451) remarks: "It appears from several papers of the Berlin Society as to the German 'high- fields' or 'heathen-fields' (Hochacker, and Heidenacker) that they correspond much in their situation on hills and wastes with the 'elf-furrows' of Scotland, which popular mythology accounts for by the story of the fields having been put under a Papal interdict, so that people took to cultivating the hills. There seems reason to suppose that, like the tilled plots in the Swedish forest which tradition ascribes to the old 'hackers,' the German heathen-fields represent tillage by an ancient and barbaric population."

{82} White of Selborne has some good remarks on the service performed by worms in loosening, &c., the soil. Edit, by L. Jenyns, 1843, p. 281.

{83} 'Zeitschrift fur wissenschaft. Zoolog.' B. xxviii. 1877, p. 360.

Charles Darwin

All Pages of This Book