90 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



He looks rather huffed, as he replies : " How should 

 I know ? and what does it matter V 



" It matters everything. And for your satisfaction 

 I can tell you that they are of separate sexes/' 



" Humph r' 



" A French naturalist, Quatrefages by name, has 

 found that at certain seasons the female carries the 

 eggs in the folds of her respiratory organs/' 



" The deuce she does !" 



" And there they remain till the milt of the male, 

 floating in the water, is washed over them, and fecund- 

 ates them. Now this same Naturalist has brought 

 his knowledge to bear upon the very question you are 

 so interested in. He finds that a weak solution of 

 mercury thrown into the water destroys this milt, 

 and consequently prevents the fecundation of the eggs, 

 nipping the young molluscs in the bud. By thus be- 

 coming a zoological Herod, and destroying the inno- 

 cents wholesale, in a few seasons you may clear the 

 docks of every individual Teredo, and your ships will 

 be safe." 



I see by the intelligent twinkle of his eye that he 

 has seized this notion with decisive approbation, and 

 from this moment begins to think there may be some 

 use, after all, in Natural History. I almost feel tempted 

 to show him my Pholas, although it is not a very 

 interesting animal to watch. There is a somnolent 

 lethargy, an otiosity of do-nothingism in its demean- 

 our, surprising in one who bores through rocks as we 

 tunnel the Jura. He will not even bore now. I have 



