Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-05-23
STUDYING THE TEREDo.

STUDYING THE TEREDO.
higher than Puget sound and the ground
easily worked without blasting. The
chief advantage Of fresh water harbor
for ships, of course, is that the teredo or
ship worm. the pest of all warm salt
waters and especially of Puget sound,
would be eliminated. Large bills for
naval vermifuge would thus be rendered
unnecessary and ironclads especially
would become less porous.
The teredo is one of genus of ace
phalous, testaceous mollusks that bore
and penetrate the bottoms of ships and
other submersed wood. The ship worm
belongs to family of conchiferous or
lamelh branchiates. They are not,
strictly speaking, worms at all, as they
have the true molluscan organization
and the elongation of the body is simply
due TO the excessive protraction back
ward of the siphonal tubes, which thus
give us a long wasted mollusk, vul-
carly called worm If / do not make
myself perfectly clear, or if l use words
which bother or confuse the scientist, /
hope he will not be at all backward
about coming to me for an explanation.
The abdominal or shell covered por-
ton of the animal is comparatively
small, and, according to Theodore Gill,
is almost subglobular The siphonal
portion is, in proportion. extremely long
and wormlike
The description of this bird increases in
interest as we proceed, and word or
two further regarding this little acepha-
lous, testaceous mollusk, which patiently
goes to work to sink great ship, may
not be entirely out of place at this time,
for l am not radically opposed to facts
in the abstract. 1t is only the abnormal,
protracted and chronic use of facts that
deprecate and deplore.
The family OF Teredinide, to which
the ship worm belongs, have siphons that
are united for the greater part of their
length, but free towards their ends, and
these are armed with two peculiar elon-
gated shelly appendages called styles or
siphonal pallettes.
The teredo does not care for social rec
ignition, but devotes its life to this great
task. With no appetite for club life, yet
ignoring its marital relations and negli-
gent of domestic responsibilities the tere-
do gives up its whole existence to mis-
taken and i'll advised efforts to damage
the commerce of the world
In this family the mantle is well devel-
oped, its lobes united except at the pedal
opening, reflected behind over the valves
of the shell and developed above into lobe
like expansions, which are reflected over
the hinges of the shell and serve to keep
the valves in place. The gills are large and
extend far into the siphonal portion. The
mouth is provided with palpi, and it has
q sweet breath like that of clover fed
COW. The foot is subcyhndrical and suck
erhke, with foiaceous margin, moder-
ately protractive and well supplied with
nerves. The shell is composed of two
equal valves of peculiar form.
The family includes the Teredo, the
Nansitora, the Kuphess, the Calculates,
the Xylotrya, the Uperotus and the Lyro-
dus, all of whom are highly connected
On entering the navy the Teredo family's
motto is Ever onward and upward" and
though at times he is a bore, the teredo
retains his hold on society like retired
pugilist who has married well.
The Teredo Navalis, as we call him in
scientific circles, does his boring and de-
structive work by means of the armature
of the valves already described, and yet
Professor E. Percival Wright very truth
fully says that the ship worm is no arma-
ture at this business.
The sexes of the Teredo family are I'M
equally divided, there being about twenty
males to one female. The latter lays its
eggs in the months of June and July, in
large quantities. Sea sickness never in
terferes with her plans.
To remove ship worms battle the bot
tom of the ship every morning in hot
borax water, rinse thoroughly in tepid,
distilled water, wipe dry with coarse
crash towel, and then smear thoroughly
with creosote oil This should be kept
up for at least a fortnight, after which it
will be found that the worms are SO
stupefied that they may be readily re-
moved from their holes by means of a
nut pick
In preparing the above interesting de-
scription of the Teredo, am indebted
for valuable suggestions to the Natural
History of the Terede, by E. Percival
Wright, vol XIV; Monograph of the
Family Tereda, by @. W. Tryon, and q
uJtle brochure Dy Ia H. baunnauer, en-
titled Sur lie Taret ct les Moyens de pro-
sewer les Bots de ses Degats, or words to
that effect.
Seattle cut 100000 feet of lumber
last year and had to import lot more
for its own use, and yet it costs 800 an
acre to clear off and destroy the beauti-
full timber that now stands on what are
the lots and additions to the city. saw
pine tree growing in the park that was
forty-four feet in circumference six feet
from the ground. Many others near it
were about as large.
Most every stranger thinks the snow
must have been very deep in Washington
in winter because the stumps are SO high,
some of them being cut off eight and ten
feet above the ground, but that is not so.
lear-,ad vow early that this nine is ex-
tremely pitchy at the base or butt, so
much so as to be practically worthless,
so the lumberman cuts notch above this
Objectionable point and inserting a spring
board with iron or steel points to it, he
mounts this little scaffold and cuts off the
tree at point which would have been
two or three feet above his head if he had