198 THE geologjst. 



nuts " (which are always completely petrified) are found petrified stems 

 of palm-trees, bamboos, and poplar-trees. 



These palm -nuts, bamboos, and poplar-like trees are sometimes 

 found pierced in all directions by a species of Teredo, which has left its 

 worm-shaped siiells in the petrified wood. Sometimes large clusters of 

 the calcareous tubes of this mollusc are found covering, or buried in, 

 the stem of a poplar or palm-tree; sometimes again they show them- 

 selves in compact masses, where only a slight vestige of a tree-stem 

 remains discernable ; in this case the wood has been so thoroughly 

 tunnelled, that hardly any of it remains. 



The fossil^ of which I speak belongs to that tribe of worm-shaped 

 mollusca so much dreaded by shipowners before the copper-sheathing 

 of vessels was imagined. The animals of this genus lay their eggs 

 upon the surface of submerged wood ; the young Teredo, as soon as it 

 is excluded, begins to work its way inward, and continues to proceed to 

 a greater depth as it grows larger. Its mode of operating, both curious 

 and wonderful, is described in works on Zoology; its tunnelling ap- 

 paratus exceeds everything man's genius has yet brought to bear in 

 making his tunnels. The particular species to which I allude as being 

 found in the fossil-trees of the Schaerbeek sand, is the Teredo corniformis 

 of Lamack.f The existing Teredo makes the same havoc amongst 

 the cocoa-nuts and palm-stems which float at the present time in the 

 tropical seas, that its predecessors made thousands of centuries ago, 

 when flourishing amidst the waters that deposited the middle Eocene 

 beds of Brussels. 



Our readers have doubtlessly heard of the marvellous property pos- 

 sessed by musk of retaining its odour for a long period of time — months, 

 nay, years, may elapse, and the musk is as odoriferous as ever. But 

 can any odour be retained for 100,000 years or more ? ITy fossil 

 Teredos answer this question in the affirmative ! When these fossils are 

 fresh from the strata in which they lie, they have a strong smell of the 

 sea ; so strong, indeed, in some specimens that I could hardly believe 

 it possible. The odour of the sea is, however, veiy characteristic, and 

 not easily mistaken or forgotten ; it has been remarked in very early 



See Forbes' and Hanley's British Molluscs " for a good account of the 

 Teredo.— Ed. Geologist. 



t In the Province of Brabant, we have two or three other fossil species of the 

 same genus. — T.L.P. 



