10 THE TEREDO, OR SHIP- WORM. 



seas, and the numerous expensive methods which have been 

 adopted to avert its attacks. There is in the Indian seas, 

 says an anonymous traveller, " a kind of small worms that 

 fasten themselves to the timber of the ships, and so pierce 

 them, that they take water everywhere ; or, if they do not 

 altogether pierce them through, they so weaken the wood, 

 that it is almost impossible to repair them. To preserve the 

 ships," he continues, " some have employed deal, hair, and 

 lime, &c. and therewith lined their ships ; but, besides that 

 this does not altogether affright the worms, it retards much 

 the ship's course. The Portugals scorch their ships, inso- 

 much that in the quick works there is made a coaly crust of 

 about an inch thick. But as this is dangerous, it happening 

 not seldom, that the whole vessel is burnt ; so the reason 

 why worms eat not thorow Portugal ships is conceived to be 

 the exceeding hardness of the timber employed by them."* 

 In the West the Teredo is equally active, as the observations 

 of Sir Hans Sloane and Dr. Browne prove, -f- Our early navi- 

 gators were frequently thwarted or controlled in their bold 

 enterprises by their ships being rendered, by its means, un- 

 safe or useless ; and as our commerce enlarged, the evil was 

 so severely felt that it led to the plan of sheathing the bottoms 

 of ships with lead and copper, for which important discovery 

 an Act of Parliament was passed to secure to Sir Philip 

 Howard and Major Watson the sole use and profits which 

 might accrue from it. From the tropical seas the Teredines 

 were commonly believed to have been introduced into those 

 of Europe, somewhat less than two centuries ago ; but as 

 there is more than sufficient evidence to prove that certain 

 species are truly indigenous, J the hope vanishes of ever see- 

 ing them extirpated by a winter severer than usual, or by a 

 continued temperature inimical to their constitution, as might 

 have happened had they been colonists from the tropics ; for 

 the Teredo almost always resides near the surface, and often 

 in situations which are left dry during the ebb, where it is 



* Phil. Trans, an. 1666, p. 190. 



t Hist, of Jamaica, p. 395. Dr. Browne has erroneously figured a species 

 of Nereis for the "ship-worm." 



J In some parts of the London clay, branches and stems of trees, pene- 

 trated by the Teredo navalis are found." Bakewell's Geology, p. 325. At 

 Belfast, it has been found buried in blue clay twelve feet beneath the sur- 

 face, where it must have been deposited centuries before Europe enjoyed 

 any commerce with either the East or West. Edin. New Phil. Journ. 

 xviii. 126. For correct descriptions and figures of our native species, the 

 reader is referred to the u British Mollusca " of Forbes and Hanley, i. 

 p. 6689. The authors have given an interesting sketch of the Teredo's 

 misdeeds as an introduction to their account of the species. 



