The Teredo Worm’s Silent Siege

At about 10 a.m. today, the neighborhood within half a mile of the wheat warehouse was shaken by a shock that registered with the impression of an earthquake. The floor of the warehouse had been packed solid with wheat in sacks, and the regular rows stood almost to the roof. Miner, the warehouse man, made his way through the alley left between the piles of sacks. He had scarcely gone a dozen feet when he saw what caused him to retreat as quickly as possible. A ragged hole nearly 15 feet across had let about 300 sacks of wheat down into the water. It was the work of the terrible teredo, and no one could tell when the rest of the heavily laden floor would go down. The floor had been carrying between six and seven thousand tons of wheat, and the sidetracks of the Northern Pacific near the warehouse were filled with cars also loaded with wheat, all waiting the arrival of ships which were expected. The piles seemed to have been eaten clear through, as straight as though they had been sawed. Most of them, however, seemed to have simply dropped down under the water, perhaps six or seven feet.