384 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
However that may he, the building has been nearly levelled by 
hand of time, aided by the hand of man ; and the ruins now consist of 
three magnificent marble columns of about forty feet high. But the 
curious and important fact is, that these three columns, at about tea 
feet above the surface, are riddled with holes, and full of cavities bored 
deeply into the marble, and these borings occupy the space of thr^ 
feet on each column. The cause of these perforations is no longer 
con u . n some of the cavities the shell of the operator is still 
found, and it seems settled among naturalists that it belongs to » 
species of Pholas, although M. Pouchet, a naturalist of Piouen, denies 
this: “As far,” he says, “ as I have been able to judge from the 
fragment which I extracted from this temple, which is destitute of 
the hinge, it is infinitely more probable that this mollusc is a species 
of the genus Corallisphaga In spite, however, of M. Pouchet ’s scep- 
ticism, the mass of evidence is opposed to his theory. 
There are two modes of explaining the fact to which we have called 
attention. To enable the stone-boring molluscs which live only & 
the sea to excavate this marble, the temple and columns must iiaf e 
been buried several fathoms deep in sea- water. It is only in these 
conditions that the borers could have made an incision, and laboured 
at their ease, in the marble column. 
But since the same traces of perforation are now visible ten fe et 
above the surface, it follows that, after being long immersed under water, 
the columns have been elevated to their present position. The temp le 
has been restored to its primitive state, carrying with it, engraved 
marble, ineffaceable proofs of its immersion. Sir Charles Lyell b» s 
consecrated a long chapter to the successive sinking and elevation of 
this temple, which proves the fact most conclusively. 
Beside the Pholades naturalists usually place the Teredos: marine 
animals having a special and irresistible inclination for submerged 
wood , for while wood exposed to the air becomes a prey to terrestrial 
animals, so submerged wood is subject to invasion by aquatic animals, 
of which the Teredo is by far the most formidable. The Teredos in 
the bosom of the ocean perforate the hardest timbers, whatever b e 
their essence. The galleries bored by these imperceptible miners 
riddle the whole interior of a piece of wood, destroying it entirely, 
without the slightest external indication of its ravages. The galleries 
