A RACE WITH A WATERSPOUT. 95 



searched for others. A dozen or more were 

 soon placed on the deck of the Rosetta, and 

 every worm was found with the blade of grass 

 inserted as a door a contrivance employed by 

 some spiders. 



" The worms alone would afford us work for 

 weeks," said the doctor, as he picked some fine 

 specimens from the coral and displayed a group 

 of Serpulce on the deck, the tubes being wound 

 together in a singular manner. 



The beauty of the corals and gorgonias here 

 caused them to remain for some time, and then 

 they pulled out to an old wreck that lay in 

 shoal water, a quarter of a mile away. 



It proved to be the remnant of a very large 

 ship. Part of the lower deck remained, and evi- 

 dently for years had been a favorite resting- 

 place for the birds. The whole framework w r as 

 rotten and shaky, and this was found to be due 

 to the fact that the submerged portion of the 

 wreck was literally honeycombed with the tubes 

 of the teredo, or ship- worm. Were it not that 

 these persistent borers had lined the holes they 

 made with a deposit that strengthened the 



