From Horace Darwin   9 and 12 September 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. 12^th.

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