Shipworm

“ This is done to prevent the attack of a destructive little animal called the wood-worm, which eats its way into and through the planks, making holes nearly an inch in diameter. These holes would, by admitting the water into the hold of the ship, soon sink her, as it is impossible to stop the ravages of these insects while the ship is at sea. The worm attacks every part that is below the water-line in such immense numbers, that every plank in the bottom of a vessel that has not the protection of copper has been found full of them on her arrival into port. ”

“ Quite a number of marine worms closely allied to the common ragworm, and resembling it in general form, are to be found on our shores. Many of these may be seen by turning over stones that are left exposed at low tide, while others hide themselves in snug little crevices of the rock, or in the empty shells of the acorn barnacle and various molluscs; and some species, including one of a bright-green colour, creep freely over the wet rocks in search of food or home, often exposing themselves to the rays of a fierce summer sun. ”

“ On any muddy stretch of beach, when the tide is out, you may see numbers and numbers of little twisted casts, just like those which you may find on the lawn in the garden on any warm damp morning. These are made by Lug Worms, or “logs,” as the fishermen generally call them, and they really consist of sand which the worm has swallowed during the last three or four hours. For lug worms burrow by swallowing mouthful after mouthful of sand, until they can swallow no more. They eat their way down into the sand, in fact, just as earth-worms eat their way down into the ground. ”

“ Once such an insect is caught on one of the threads it is lost beyond all hope. There it sticks, struggle as it may. The vibrations caused by its struggles attract the attention of the glow worm which quickly winds up the hanging thread. If it is not hungry at the moment it has been observed to play with its victim, [Pg 5] drawing in and then letting out the line after the manner of a fisherman. Finally the prey is drawn into the silken sheath and entirely devoured, chitinous shell and all. It is not merely sucked, as is the fashion of the spider or the fly. ”

“ The holes thus made may be seen on the borders of beaches, when the tide is fast receding, in rows of twenty, thirty, or more; in certain spots less numerous; for it appears that when a place proves unproductive of the food for which they are searching, they very soon take to their wings and remove to another, now and then in so hurried a manner that one might suppose they had been suddenly frightened. The contents of the stomach of those which I shot while thus occupied, were slender sea-worms, about an inch in length, together with minute shell-fish and gravel. ”

“ A native boat carried us across to the mainland, and landing, we were amused with the number of sea-shells which we found on the ground away from the beach. They were of a variety of shapes and kinds, which had been taken possession of by those curious creatures, the hermit crabs, who wander into the forest in search of food. Sometimes, however, they become food themselves to huge spiders, and we saw one monster carry away a fair-sized shell, and devour its unhappy occupant. ”

“ Soon it is ready to enlarge the outer shell. So the inside skin cracks apart and falls off. By degrees some barnacles become quite large as fresh shell grows from within.
When the old inside skin falls off, the eggs are set free. Out of them come the larvæ. The larvæ are active, hungry little fellows, who know how to swim as soon as they are loose in the water.
The larva acts as if it liked to be free from the shell prison. It darts about in the sea, and each day its shape changes. It has one eye, a mouth, two feelers like horns, and six legs. It can swim, and can walk over sea-weed. ”

“ Yet, after all, the most effective defense of worm-fishing is the concrete recollection of some brook that could be fished best or only in that way, or the image of a particular trout that yielded to the temptation of an angleworm after you had flicked fly after fly over him in vain. Indeed, half the zest of brook fishing is in your campaign for "individuals,"—as the Salvation Army workers say,—not merely for a basketful of fish qua fish, but for a series of individual trout which your instinct tells you ought to lurk under that log or be hovering in that ripple. ”

“ The proglottides containing the eggs pass out of the final host along with the faeces and enter the intermediate host with the food. The larvae hatch, and boring their way into the blood-vessels, are carried by the circulation to various internal organs. Here they usually become "bladder-worms," and develop the "head" of the future sexual form. Then, if, as is usually the case, the intermediate host is preyed upon by the final host, the larval Cestodes enter the alimentary canal of the latter. The head of the larva alone survives digestion, and from it the mature worm is formed. ”

“ An oyster, adapted by its structure to the diffused food contained in the water it draws in, and shielded by its shell from nearly all dangers, may live longer than a cuttle-fish, which has such superior powers of dealing with numerous contingencies; but then, the sum of vital activities during any given interval is far less in the oyster than in the cuttle-fish. So a worm, ordinarily sheltered from most enemies by the earth it burrows through, which also supplies a sufficiency of its poor food, may have greater longevity than many of its annulose relatives, the insects ”

“ Many large destructive creatures, unfit for food, generally of a nature intermediate between fish and reptiles, haunt the seas. It is held unwise to exterminate them, since they do their part in keeping down an immense variety of smaller creatures, noxious for one reason or another, and also in clearing the water from carrion and masses of seaweed which might otherwise taint the air of the sea-coasts, especially near the mouths of large tropical rivers. ”

“ There is generally great difficulty in persuading larvae to fix themselves when kept in a small quantity of water, which becomes over-heated in the air of a laboratory. The difficulty may be surmounted by placing colonies containing embryos, together with some clean pieces of the seaweed on which the adults are habitually found, in a vessel closed by a piece of fine muslin, and by leaving the vessel attached to a buoy or in a deep tide-pool. The larvae being without an alimentary canal, fix themselves, after a very short free life, on the seaweed. ”

“ The shell of each is covered with a luxuriant growth of algae, hydroids and tentacled tube-worms, which mask the creature from its enemies. All about are large fish which swim close and peer through the glass window of the helmet. An enormous sting-ray indifferently floats by. One has a fellow feeling with these unfrighted denizens of the deep in the fascination of observing their behavior under natural conditions. ”

“ The Food of Worms.—The Nereidiformia are mostly carnivorous, and feed on small Crustacea, Mollusca, sponges, and other animals; and Polynoids are even said to eat one another. Many worms do not disdain various seaweeds, whilst the Spioniformia and Scoleciformia, which burrow in mud and sand, and are without biting organs, swallow the mud and digest what animal or vegetable débris it may contain. The Terebellids and Cryptocephala depend on minute organisms which may be driven into the mouth by the action of the cilia of the gills or tentacles. ”

“ But for the Trout, the dew-worm, which some also call the lob-worm, and the brandling, are the chief; and especially the first for a great Trout, and the latter for a less. There be also of lob-worms, some called squirrel-tails, a worm that has a red head, a streak down the back, and a broad tail, which are noted to be the best, because they are the toughest and most lively, and live longest in the water; for you are to know that a dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm. ”

“ Prawns, Shrimps, Medusae, and fishes of many species, in the little pools which the tide leaves behind, and which it will require a sharp eye and a quick hand to explore with success. But the rarer forms of Actinias, Star-fishes, Sepioles, Madrepores, Annelidae, and Zoophytes, of a thousand shapes, live on the bottom, in deep water, and must be captured there.
For this purpose we must dredge from a boat, under sail. The naturalist's dredge is an improved oyster-dredge, with each of the two long sides of the mouth made into a scraping lip of iron. ”

“ Some Men are of Opinion, that these Worms breed in the Plank; but I am perswaded they breed in the Sea: For I have seen Millions of them swimming in the Water, particularly in the Bay of Panama; for there Captain Davis, Captain Swan and my self, and most of our Men, did take notice of them divers times, which was the reason of our Cleaning so often while we were there: and these were the largest Worms that I did ever see. I have also seen them in Virginia, and in the Bay of Campeachy; in the latter of which places the Worms eat prodigiously. ”

“ Most marine anglers are acquainted with that well-known and common bait the Lug-worm, Arenicola marina, amongst other Polychaet lures, which form part of the group of "marine worms, whose bodies are usually elongated and cylindrical; they either lead a free life swimming in the open sea or crawling along the bottom, or they pass their life in burrows or definite tubes of various kinds." Amongst other peculiarities, some species are polymorphic. ”

“ Such forms of insects, crustaceans, worms, etc., as have taken to living under bark and wood and become so flattened as conveniently to slip between the wood and bark in crevices scarcely permitting the passage of a sheet of paper—mollusks which bore into piles or some into solid rock—barnacles that fasten to ships and thus reach all climes—insects that thrive in such unnatural food material as tobacco, insect powder; or larvae that live in brine vats, wine vats, or, perhaps most extreme, in crude petroleum. ”

“ None of the insects is truly marine, yet some of them are seafaring, truly, for they spend their lives on drifting sea-wrack, or on beaches just out of reach of the tides; but most of the true worms are dwellers in the mud of sea-shores and sea-bottoms. No one knows of any land fishes; but I need not tell you that fishes throng in the fresh waters as well as in the salt, and that many species inhabit both at different seasons. ”

“ Some of the marine animals obtained from our shores feed entirely on the minute and invisible organisms that are always present in the sea water, and others subsist principally on certain of the weeds. Many, however, of a more predaceous disposition, capture and devour living prey, while some, and more especially the crustaceans, are partial to carrion. If, therefore, the observer desires to study the ways in which the various creatures secure and devour their food, he should introduce into his aquaria live marine worms and other small animals, and also small pieces of fish or flesh. ”

“ They become strong, light colored and lively, and should be threaded on a fine hook by passing the point in at the head of the worm and out half-way down the side; then in, half up the side of another, and forced nearly to the head. Worms, if cast as in fly-fishing, are very attractive, and will frequently kill an immense number of fish. There is much skill in casting so as not to tear off the bait, and yet to cover an extent of water. ”

“ All these worms bury themselves in the sand, or wander through it in search of prey, for they are carnivorous, and do not hesitate to kill and eat each other. Some are fairly sedentary, and protect themselves against fishes, crabs, mollusks, and bigger annelids that seek them, by forming tubes by means in some cases of a shelly secretion, but more usually by cementing bits of shell, stones, and grains of sand into an irregular tube lining the burrow ”

“ The Pope, or Ruff, is excellent for a young Angler, bites greedily, and quantities may be taken, by Baiting the Ground with Earth, and your Hook with small Red Worms.
The Pike, loveth all sorts of Baits (unless the Fly) Gudgeon, Dace, Roaches and Loaches; and young Frogs in Summer time, of which the yellowest is best.
The Pearch, taketh all sorts of Earth-worms, especially the Lob-worm, and Brandling, well scowred, Bobs, Oak-worms, Dors, Gentles, Cole-wort-worms, Wasps, Cadbaits, and Menow, or a little Frog, the Hook being fastned through the skin of his Leg, towards the upper part of it. ”

“ By having such a place, when any insect is fastened on a trout, he will go to the quick-running water, and will soon rub it off. Putting trout in a pond with mud and weedy bottom that contains water-insects, and no stream flowing into it, is like tying a man's hands and placing him where there are plenty of mosquitoes, gnats, and black flies. The running water and gravelly bottom answer the same purpose in keeping the trout free from insects as our hands do in keeping the mosquitoes from us. ”

“ These are the water boatmen, stout boat-shaped insects whose hind legs are long, projecting outward like the oars of a rowboat. They feather their oars, too, or rather the oars are feathered for them, a fringe of long hairs growing out on each side of the blade. Some of the boatmen swim upside down, and these have the back keeled instead of the breast. Like real submarine boats, these insects have to come up for air occasionally; and, again like similar craft of human handiwork, their principal mission in life seems to be warfare upon the weaker creatures about them. ”