From Horace Darwin 9 and 12 September 1880
Macugnaga
Sep 9th. 1880
Worms.
Macugnaga is 5115 ft. above the sea.1 It rained heavily last night. I found one small worm casting near here in an open place in a larch wood. Higher up the valley, 300 ft. I should say above this, I found several small castings. The castings are evidently made by a very small worm, & were very small. I saw the tail of one of them. The hole through which the castings are made must have been about the size of a pin. I only saw one fresh casting, & altogether I found very few. Old ones are difficult to recognise, as they are very powdery.
Baveno Sep. 12th.
For the first two hours of our way down here from Macugnaga I looked out for worms but saw none.
The fields & grass about Zermatt and Macugnagna so far as I have seen, have not that peculiar hummocky appearance, which is seen at home in fields which are habitually grazed by sheep.2
Footnotes
Summary
Reports evidence of earthworm activity.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12709
- From
- Horace Darwin
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Macugnaga and Baveno
- Source of text
- DAR 64.1: 36–7
- Physical description
- Amem 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12709,” accessed on 20 June 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12709.xml