CHAPTER II. 



THE SHIP-WORM. — ANCIENT ACCOUNTS. — MISCHIEfS, — ATTEMPTS TO CHECK 



IT. TRUE DESCRIPTION. — MANNER OF BORING. — SPECIES, — CHAMBERS 



IN THE TUBE OF TEREDO NORVEGICA. 



PHOLADIDJE. 



These are bivalved mollusca, with long-sliaped bodies^ witli 

 a siphonal tube divided at the end into two hairy openings. 

 They all bore into stone^ clay, wood, or other substances. 



TEKEDO. 



Thepe was known among the ancients a formidable kind 

 of "worm" with a long body, a forked tail, a round head, 

 with a most formidable pair of jaws, which voraciously 

 gnawed its way into wood under water, and lived in the 

 hole which it had thus scooped out for its dwelling. Mul- 

 titudes of these worms attacked not only floating, useless 

 timber, but the submerged parts of piles and breakwaters. 



