The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1899-08-19
Hash affords US an example OF an end
without means.-Chicago Daily News
BORE HOLES UNDER THE SEA
Tiny Marine Mining Creatures That
Sink Deep shafts In solid
Rock.

Some remarkable miners are found
In the ocean delying into the hardest
rock. Some Of them work in limestone
coral; others penetrate the muddy bot
tom and inease the shaft in which they
work with lime. SO far as its resem-
blance TO a miner of land is concerned
the shell known as pholas Is the most
remarkable, as II Is moi only a wonder
full miner, but also carries u light,
bright and vivid, that seems to serve
as a miners lamp, and that has some
interesting properties, one Of which
Is that II shows in the water and in d
vacuum, and, while clear and distinct,
emits not the slightest heat.
The pholas Is a richly chased shell
about two inches In length, and has the
power Of boring holes In the hardest
rock as well as in clay but, unlike other
miners, the pholas never comes out of
the mine. BY some means, possibly by
its rasping foot, possibly by some secre-
tion that dissolyes the stone, II gradual
ly wears the stone away and slowly and
imperceptibly enters, not In a straight
line, but in an undulating course, for a
few inches. Having reached a place Of
safety, the miner begins 10 enlarge its
lead or tube. This continues as the
shell grows, until finally, If the pholas
was capable OF appreciating its sur-
roundings, it would realize that 1t was
a prisoner for life; that it had bored
into a rock and there grown larger
than the tunnel through which IL en-
tered. The object Of this miner is not
to obtain riches, but to find protection
and security In the grsnite cell, and
with Its light cleaning at night, no
better imitation Of a human miner can
be imagined.
Almost as remarkable is the nigel
lus. The pholas is incased in a shell al
most flint, but the mygellus is very
delicate and in all probability forms its
tunnel with the aid of some dissolying
secretion. 1t p%enetrates the rock OF
object which It selects, and gradually
throws out a tiny tube, which is merely
an extension Of the shell. In some in
stances this tube is a foot in length,
and a marvellous example Of the tube.
makers art. It is said that a distin.
guished engineer obtained his idea of
a tunnel from this shell.
These shell miners are not especially
destructive. They bore very slowly and
usually attack stone, but there are
other miners which are inveterate enc.
miles Of man in their efforts to DESTROY
wharyes, piers and vessels, chief among
which is a little crab-like creature, linn,
noria, that affects piers and bores into
the hardest lumber, penetrating II in
every direction until IL presents the an.
pearance of a honeycomb. So persist.
ent are these miners on the California
Goa that 1t is necessary to repair
docks and piers once or twice a wear
In tropical waters an equally de.
structiye ocean miner Is found in the
teredo, that p~enetrates the bulls OF
vessels and woodwork Of all kinds. As
II proceeds IL incases its tube with a
limelike secretion and in some instance,
the entire framework is eaten AWAY
n replaced by the pearly deposits OF
this miner, that constructs a tube as
carefully devised as the arch of the
human miner. A wreck stranded On a
coral reef, so high and dry that one
could walk around 1t at low tide, showed
the beams and planks intact in many
instances, but the hand could be thrus,
through the apparently solid planklnR
In any direction, the structure crush.
ing In like pasteboard. The interior
wood had been eaten away and replaced
by the limelike tubes Of this remarkable
miner.
Among the worms are many singular
miners that construct elaborate tube,
~ or 10 feet in length and have lights
upon their bodies with which to ilium.
mate the tunnel. Nearly all the crabs
are miners and Of n very skiIful class
especially the spirit crabs, which min,
In soft sand and by their careful manip.
ulation prove their wonderful skill in
mining Chicago Chronicle.