Farrer to have
been penetrated by worms. On August 26th, that is, five days after
the ruins had been exposed, he observed four open burrows on the
broken summit of the eastern wall (W in Fig. 8); and, on September
15th, other burrows similarly situated were seen. It should also
be noted that in the perpendicular side of the trench (which was
much deeper than is represented in Fig. 8) three recent burrows
were seen, which ran obliquely far down beneath the base of the old
wall.
We thus see that many worms lived beneath the floor and the walls
of the atrium at the time when the excavations were made; and that
they afterwards almost daily brought up earth to the surface from a
considerable depth. There is not the slightest reason to doubt
that worms have acted in this manner ever since the period when the
concrete was sufficiently decayed to allow them to penetrate it;
and even before that period they would have lived beneath the
floor, as soon as it became pervious to rain, so that the soil
beneath was kept damp. The floor and the walls must therefore have
been continually undermined; and fine earth must have been heaped
on them during many centuries, perhaps for a thousand years. If
the burrows beneath the floor and walls, which it is probable were
formerly as numerous as they now are, had not collapsed in the
course of time in the manner formerly explained, the underlying
earth would have been riddled with passages like a sponge; and as
this was not the case, we may feel sure that they have collapsed.
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