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adorned, they certainly cannot fail to command attention from a mind capa- 

 ble of contemplation. They are things of their own nature engaging j they arc 

 things, without which fo many fpecies of living creatures mull become a prey to 

 the next voracious hunters of the main ; they are things whole peculiar difpofitions, 

 forms, lultres, and colours immediately engage our attention ; and, befides, they 

 are now found to engage the thoughts, and employ the leifure hours of many of 

 my fair country-women, fo much, that I thought it particularly my duty to give a 

 circumftantial account of fuch as I have met within thofe parts j as it may contri- 

 bute fomething towards the 



fay, it is a natural call : for what can be more engaging to a mind as yet unbur- 

 thened with care, unmolefted with anxious thoughts and unaltered with toil, than 

 the contemplation of things fo full of natural fymmetry, variety, and glowing lu- 

 jftres? And may we not conclude that a beautiful combination of colours may be, 

 often, as agreeable to the eye, as a regular fuccefiion of founds can be to the 

 ear? 1 



innocent amufement of perfons in whom, I may 





To make the following part more clear, ?.nd the difpofition more cafy and natu- 

 ral, it is divided into three clafles: the firft of thefe comprehends the feveral forts 

 of Univolves -, in the fecond is a catalogue 01 all the Bivohes-, and the third, of the 



Plurivolves -, but each is again divided into articles, and thefe into genera and 



fpecies. 



But before I give any account of the receptacles thcmfelves I muff beg leave to 

 lay fomething of the Nereis ; a genus of infecls, whofe fpecies fcem to be the i a- 

 bricators and inhabitants of all the different forts of tubulL which we have placed 



in the beginning of the firft order. 





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NEREIS i. T^entaculis capitis binis, tripartitis ; corporis, plurimis penicilU- 



formibus, duplicijerie ad later a pofith. Tab. 39. f. 1. (a) 

 Scolopendra marina author urn. Pet. Qaz. 



. 





The Ship-Worm of Yamaha* 





This infect is extremely deftructive to all the {hips that anchor for any time in the 

 harbours of 'Jamaica, or in any other part within the tropics : They cut with great 

 facility through the planks, and burrow a confiderable way in the fubftance of them, 

 incruftating the fides of all their holes with a fmooth teitaceous fubftance (b). 

 They cut with equal eafe thro' moft forts of timber, nor do we yet know any, 

 except fome of the palm-tribe, that is free from their attacks j but, from late 

 experiments, we have fome reafon to hope that aloes and Indian pepper mixed up 

 with the other ingredients with which the bottoms of (hips are commonly daubed, 

 may retard their attacks, if not wholly prevent them. 



It is amazing; with what eafe thefe infects run thro' all forts of timber-, but it is 

 remarkable that they burrow moil in the parts that arc chiefly expo'ed to a vicil- 



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fitude of elements. In the harbour of Kingflon, where all the wharfs are made of 

 wood, and fuftained by large piles of the ftrongeft timbers, there are frequent oc- 

 cafions to obferve the operations of this infed, which generally deflroys the Iargeil 

 pieces of the harden: and mod refinous wood, in the fpace of a few years. 



There is a great variety of thefe infects (c) % and many of the other fpecies are 

 qually deftructive. 



e 



{a) This infed was fo long in fpirits that the tentacule of the head were alrnoft wholly decayed, and 



thofe of the fides much injured. I had it from my curious friend At. Peter Collinfon, F. R. S. 



(b) It is very probable that all the tubuli we know of are formed by infers of the fame d*l\ 



(c) Mr. Ellis gives a figure of a very large and curious Ntr/us and its Jiphcn. 



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