86 , SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



mens, I could do no less than send one of them to an 

 amateur ; and thus it came that I despatched the wide- 

 mouthed bottle in the tin case, which arrived without 

 accident. After keeping my two borers for some time, 

 one of them fell a victim to anatomical curiosity ; as 

 for the third, Vappetit vient en maiigeaiitj' and I dis- 

 sected him also. 



The reader has doubtless heard about the boring 

 Molluscs, of which there are several different kinds, 

 all curious to the philosopher, but none very interest- 

 ing to keep. One species, the Teredo navalis (Piaffe 

 11, fig. 5), is a formidable fellow, unloved of ship- 

 owners, since many a ship has been known to split in 

 the open sea, no one on board having suspected that 

 the planks had been thoroughly drilled through and 

 through by this patient borer. The hardest oak, nay, 

 even teak and sissoo woods, are no obstacles to this 

 mollusc. The chemical process which protects timber 

 against decay is no protection against the Teredo. The 

 animal always tunnels in the direction of the grain of 

 the wood, and if in its course it meets with another 

 gentleman engaged in the same process, it alters the 

 direction of its course, so that a piece of wood attacked 

 by many Teredos becomes completely honey-combed. 

 In dockyards the defence has been to cover the wood- 

 work under water with iron nails ; and you may ima- 

 gine how necessary some protection is, since not only 

 have docks been perforated^ but many years ago Hol- 

 land was thrown into terrible alarm by discovering that 

 the piles of her embankments had been riddled by these 



