You trace the same hole leaf after leaf,
until suddenly the size becomes in one leaf reduced to half its normal
diameter, and a close examination will show a small abrasion of the paper
in the next leaf exactly where the hole would have come if continued.
In the book quoted it is just as if there had been a race. In the first
ten leaves the weak worms are left behind; in the second ten there are
still forty-eight eaters; these are reduced to thirty-one in the third
ten, and to only eighteen in the fourth ten. On folio 51 only six worms
hold on, and before folio 61 two of them have given in. Before reaching
folio 7, it is a neck and neck race between two sturdy gourmands,
each making a fine large hole, one of them being oval in shape.
At folio 71 they are still neck and neck, and at folio 81 the same.
At folio 87 the oval worm gives in, the round one eating
three more leaves and part way through the fourth.
The leaves of the book are then untouched until we reach
the sixty-ninth from the end, upon which is one worm hole.
After this they go on multiplying to the end of the book.
I have quoted this instance because I have it handy, but many worms
eat much longer holes than any in this volume; some I have seen
running quite through a couple of thick volumes, covers and all.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70