TEREDO NAVALIS IN NOVA SCOTIA — MURPHY. 365 
“ Of Crustacea, the most important is the Limnoria Lignorum. 
(p. 370 Plate VI, fig. 25) This little creature is grayish, and 
covered with minute hairs. It has the habit*of eating burrows 
for itself into solid wood to the depth of about half an inch. 
These burrows are nearly round, and of all sizes up to about a 
sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and they go into the wood at 
all angles, and are usually more or less crooked. They are often 
so numerous as to reduce the wood to mere series of thin parti- 
tions between the holes. In this state the wood rapidly decays, 
or is washed away by the waves; and every new surface exposed 
is immediately attacked, so that layer after layer is rapidly re- 
moved, and the timber thus wastes away and is entirely destroyed 
in a few years. It destroys soft woods more rapidly than hard 
ones; but all kinds are attacked except teak. It works chiefly 
in the softer parts of the wood, between the hard, annual lay- 
ers, and avoids the knots and lines of hard fibre connected with 
them, as well as rusted portions around nails that have been 
driven in; and, consequently, as the timbers waste away under 
its attacks, the harder portions stand out in bold relief. When 
abundant it will destroy soft timber at the rate of half an inch 
or more every year, thus diminishing the effective diameter 
about an inch annually. 
“Generally, however, the amount is probably not more than 
half this; but even at that rate, the largest timbers will soon be 
destroyed, especially when, as often happens, the Teredos are 
aiding in this work of destruction. It lives in a pretty narrow 
zone, extending a short distance above and below low water 
mark. It occurs all along our shores from Long Island Sound to 
Nova Scotia. In the Bay of Fundy, it often does great damage 
to the timbers and other wood-work used in. constructing the 
brush fish-weirs, as well as to the wharves, &c. At Wood’s Hole 
it was formerly found to be very destructive to the piles of the 
wharves. The piles of the new Government wharves have been 
protected by broad bands of tin plate, covering the zone which it 
chiefly affects. North of Cape Cod, where the tides are much great- 
er, this zone is broader, and this remedy is not so easily applied. It 
does great damage, also, to ship timber floating in the docks, and. 
