56 NOTES. 



Teredines abound in the richest provinces of Holland, where 

 the inhabitants have the friglitful spectacle of their great rivers 

 held up by dikes, at the height of twenty, and even thirty feet 

 above tlie level of the land. Here they frequently work their 

 way into the piles of timber tliat sustain these important barriers, 

 and threaten their total demolition, when the precaution of sheath- 

 ing their loftv sides with copper, or a composition of tar and glass 

 has been neglected. In the year 1721, considerable apprehen- 

 sions having been excited on the subject, persons were appointed 

 by the government to examine the piles of timber that sustain 

 the dikes, on drawing up one of them which had been driven 

 into the sea rather more than twenty years before, it was found, 

 though apparently sound on the outside, completely perforated by 

 innumerable Teredines, some of which exceeded a foot in length. 



" I would not doubt with impious mind. 

 Teredo ! good in thee to find." 



The feeble Teredines open a source of considerable riches to 

 the inhabitants of Sweden, and those who reside on the borders 

 of the white sea, by employing the vigilance of tbe Dutch. 'Ihe 

 necessity which they impose upon these active people, of conti- 

 nually tarring and repairing their dikes and vessels, forms a bond 

 of union between the two commercial nations, by occasioning a 

 perpetual demand for oak, pitch, and tar, and as these apparently 

 pernicious insects are continually at work at Amsterdam, for the 

 advantage of Stockholm and Archangel, so the labours of others in 

 the north are equally profitable to the Hollanders, by promoting 

 the consumption of their salt, spices, and grocery, which are 

 annually exported in large quantities, either for the purpose of 

 seasoning and preserving the provisions of their northern neigh- 

 bours, or to cure the fish which they use instead of bread. 



