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 alono- 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 



L 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 



