2.IX.VII. GEOLOGICAL ACTION OF EARTHWORMS, 1880-1882.

"My whole soul is absorbed with worms just at present." (From a letter to
Sir W. Thistleton-Dyer, November 26th, 1880.)


LETTER 547. TO T.H. FARRER (Lord Farrer).

(547/1. The five following letters, written shortly before and after the
publication of "The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of
Worms," 1881, deal with questions connected with Mr. Darwin's work on the
habits and geological action of earthworms.)

Down, October 20th, 1880.

What a man you are to do thoroughly whatever you undertake to do! The
supply of specimens has been magnificent, and I have worked at them for a
day and a half. I find a very few well-rounded grains of brick in the
castings from over the gravel walk, and plenty over the hole in the field,
and over the Roman floor. (547/2. See "The Formation of Vegetable Mould,"
1881, pages 178 et seq. The Roman remains formed part of a villa
discovered at Abinger, Surrey. Excavations were carried out, under Lord
Farrer's direction, in a field adjoining the ground in which the Roman
villa was first found, and extended observations were made by Lord Farrer,
which led Mr. Darwin to conclude that a large part of the fine vegetable
mould covering the floor of the villa had been brought up from below by
worms.) You have done me the greatest possible service by making me more
cautious than I should otherwise have been--viz., by sending me the rubbish
from the road itself; in this rubbish I find very many particles, rounded