The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms: With Observations on Their HabitsDarwin, Charles
Science
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms: With Observations on Their Habits
Darwin, Charles
Earthworms; Humification; Soils
In almost all the rooms the pavement has sunk considerably, especially
towards the middle; and this is shown in the three following sections.
The measurements were made by stretching a string tightly and
horizontally over the floor. The section, Fig. 13, was taken from north
to south across a room, 18 feet 4 inches in length, with a nearly perfect
pavement, next to the “Red Wooden Hut.” In the northern half, the
subsidence amounted to 5¾ inches beneath the level of the floor as it now
stands close to the walls; and it was greater in the northern than in the
southern half; but, according to Mr. Joyce, the entire pavement has
obviously subsided. In several places, the tesseræ appeared as if drawn
a little away from the walls; whilst in other places they were still in
close contact with them.
[Picture: Fig. 14: A north and south section through the subsided floor
of a corridor]
In Fig. 14, we see a section across the paved floor of the southern
corridor or ambulatory of a quadrangle, in an excavation made near “The
Spring.” The floor is 7 feet 9 inches wide, and the broken-down walls
now project only ¾ of an inch above its level. The field, which was in
pasture, here sloped from north to south, at an angle of 30°, 40′. The
nature of the ground at some little distance on each side of the corridor
is shown in the section. It consisted of earth full of stones and other
débris, capped with dark vegetable mould which was thicker on the lower
or southern than on the northern side. The pavement was nearly level
along lines parallel to the side-walls, but had sunk in the middle as
much as 7¾ inches.
A small room at no great distance from that represented in Fig. 13, had
been enlarged by the Roman occupier on the southern side, by an addition
of 5 feet 4 inches in breadth. For this purpose the southern wall of the
house had been pulled down, but the foundations of the old wall had been
left buried at a little depth beneath the pavement of the enlarged room.
Mr. Joyce believes that this buried wall must have been built before the
reign of Claudius II., who died 270 A.D. We see in the accompanying
section, Fig. 15, that the tesselated pavement has subsided to a less
degree over the buried wall than elsewhere; so that a slight convexity or
protuberance here stretched in a straight line across the room. This led
to a hole being dug, and the buried wall was thus discovered.
[Picture: Fig. 15: Section through the subsided floor]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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