86 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The short, completely shell-clad species, Xylophaga, Martesia, 

 &c, attack wood, oyster-shells, and stone. They do not line their 

 tunnels, and they have no regulation as to boundaries, boring with 

 or across the grain, cutting each other's lines, and sometimes, to 

 judge by some specimens that [ have seen, cutting through each 

 other's shells. It is probable, however, that the shells so cut 

 through were empty. 



Both groups are numerously represented here. Native vessels 

 suffer little from them, partly because they are usually teak-built, 

 and well protected with the peculiar compound called Ci chopan," 

 but still more because they are very frequently beached and any 

 long exposure to the air is unpleasant, not to say fatal, to the 

 Pholads. European vessels are usually either coppered or iron- 

 built, and the ship-worms are therefore not now a terror of the sea. 

 But both the long " worms" and short shell clad borers still play 

 havoc with piles and the like on this Coast. 



It is not very long since we had a honey-combed block of wood 

 in our rooms sent in by the Department of Public Works, with an 

 accusation against certain sea-anemones inhabiting the holes. These, 

 however, had certainly been made by at least two Pholads ; one a 

 Teredo "stealing by line and level" as ah-eady described; the other 

 probably aMartesia; burrowing at his own sweet will, and "jumping 

 the claims" of his brethren and predecessors without remorse or 

 ruth. 



Both had abandoned the pile before it came into our hands 

 (having probably eaten all the soft wood in it) and the burrows 

 had been colonized by sea-anemones and crabs. 



The most remarkable exploit of the Bombay Pholads was the 

 piercing of wrought-iron pipes at Hog Island, for positive evidence 

 of which I am indebted to the courtesy of another member of this 

 Society. The pipes, containing water at a very high pressure, were 

 served and parcelled with yarn and so forth to protect them from 

 the water, and this covering, probably, first attracted the Pholad, 

 one of the short fully-shelled species, probably a Martesia. 



When he had got through the covering he went on with the pipe. 

 The holes wei*e like clean countersunk holes, and were most likely 

 drilled, by a movement similar to that already described as used by 

 the "piddock," but their clean appearance, and the exposure of the 

 grain of the iron, give reason for suspecting that the mollusc had, the 

 aid of an acid j which, iu that case, he must have secreted himself. 



