On folio 1 are 212 holes. On folio 61 are 4 holes.
" 11 " 57 " " 71 " 2 "
" 21 " 48 " " 81 " 2 "
" 31 " 31 " " 87 " 1 "
" 41 " 18 " " 90 " 0 "
" 51 " 6 "


These 90 leaves being stout, are about the thickness of 1 inch.
The volume has 250 leaves, and turning to the end, we find on the last
leaf 81 holes, made by a breed of worms not so ravenous. Thus,

From end | From end.
On folio 1 are 81 holes. | On folio 66 is 1 hole.
" 11 " 40 " | " 69 " 0 "


It is curious to notice how the holes, rapidly at first, and then slowly
and more slowly, disappear. 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.