Discourses: Biological & Geological Part 4

or "Tripoli" which occur in various parts of the world, and notably at Bilin in Bohemia, consisted of acc.u.mulations of the silicious cases and skeletons of _Diatomaceoe_, sponges, and _Radiolaria_; he had proved that similar deposits were being formed by _Diatomaceoe_, in the pools of the Thiergarten in Berlin and elsewhere, and had pointed out that, if it were commercially worth while, rotten-stone might be manufactured by a process of diatom-culture. Observations conducted at Cuxhaven in 1839, had revealed the existence, at the surface of the waters of the Baltic, of living Diatoms and _Radiolaria_ of the same species as those which, in a fossil state, const.i.tute extensive rocks of tertiary age at Caltanisetta, Zante, and Oran, on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean.

Moreover, in the fresh-water rotten-stone beds of Bilin, Ehrenberg had traced out the metamorphosis, effected apparently by the action of percolating water, of the primitively loose and friable deposit of organized particles, in which the silex exists in the hydrated or soluble condition. The silex, in fact, undergoes solution and slow redeposition, until, in ultimate result, the excessively fine-grained sand, each particle of which is a skeleton, becomes converted into a dense opaline stone, with only here and there an indication of an organism.

From the consideration of these facts, Ehrenberg, as early as the year 1839, had arrived at the conclusion that rocks, altogether similar to those which const.i.tute a large part of the crust of the earth, must be forming, at the present day, at the bottom of the sea; and he threw out the suggestion that even where no trace of organic structure is to be found in the older rocks, it may have been lost by metamorphosis.[4]

[Footnote 4: _Ueber die noch jetzt zahlreich lebende Thierarten der Kreidebildung und den Organismus der Polythalamien. Abhandlungen der Kon.

Akad. der Wissenchaften._ 1839. _Berlin_. 1841. I am afraid that this remarkable paper has been somewhat overlooked in the recent discussions of the relation of ancient rocks to modern deposits.]

The results of the Antarctic exploration, as stated by Dr. Hooker in the "Botany of the Antarctic Voyage," and in a paper which he read before the British a.s.sociation in 1847, are of the greatest importance in connection with these views, and they are so clearly stated in the former work, which is somewhat inaccessible, that I make no apology for quoting them at length--

"The waters and the ice of the South Polar Ocean were alike found to abound with microscopic vegetables belonging to the order _Diatomaceoe_.

Though much too small to be discernible by the naked eye, they occurred in such countless myriads as to stain the berg and the pack ice wherever they were washed by the swell of the sea; and, when enclosed in the congealing surface of the water, they imparted to the brash and pancake ice a pale ochreous colour. In the open ocean, northward of the frozen zone, this order, though no doubt almost universally present, generally eludes the search of the naturalist; except when its species are congregated amongst that mucous sc.u.m which is sometimes seen floating on the waves, and of whose real nature we are ignorant; or when the coloured contents of the marine animals who feed on these Algae are examined. To the south, however, of the belt of ice which encircles the globe, between the parallels of 50 and 70 S., and in the waters comprised between that belt and the highest lat.i.tude ever attained by man, this vegetation is very conspicuous, from the contrast between its colour and the white snow and ice in which it is imbedded. Insomuch, that in the eightieth degree, all the surface ice carried along by the currents, the sides of every berg and the base of the great Victoria Barrier itself, within reach of the swell, were tinged brown, as if the polar waters were charged with oxide of iron.

"As the majority of these plants consist of very simple vegetable cells, enclosed in indestructible silex (as other Algae are in carbonate of lime), it is obvious that the death and decomposition of such mult.i.tudes must form sedimentary deposits, proportionate in their extent to the length and exposure of the coast against which they are washed, in thickness to the power of such agents as the winds, currents, and sea, which sweep them more energetically to certain positions, and in purity, to the depth of the water and nature of the bottom. Hence we detected their remains along every icebound sh.o.r.e, in the depths of the adjacent ocean, between 80 and 400 fathoms. Off Victoria Barrier (a perpendicular wall of ice between one and two hundred feet above the level of the sea) the bottom of the ocean was covered with a stratum of pure white or green mud, composed princ.i.p.ally of the silicious sh.e.l.ls of the _Diatomaceoe_.

These, on being put into water, rendered it cloudy like milk, and took many hours to subside. In the very deep water off Victoria and Graham's Land, this mud was particularly pure and fine; but towards the shallow sh.o.r.es there existed a greater or less admixture of disintegrated rock and sand; so that the organic compounds of the bottom frequently bore but a small proportion to the inorganic." ...

"The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the Antarctic Ocean, is a truly wonderful fact, and the more from its not being accompanied by plants of a high order. During the years we spent there, I had been accustomed to regard the phenomena of life as differing totally from what obtains throughout all other lat.i.tudes, for everything living appeared to be of animal origin. The ocean swarmed with _Mollusca_, and particularly entomostracous _Crustacea_, small whales, and porpoises; the sea abounded with penguins and seals, and the air with birds; the animal kingdom was ever present, the larger creatures preying on the smaller, and these again on smaller still; all seemed carnivorous.

The herbivorous were not recognised, because feeding on a microscopic herbage, of whose true nature I had formed an erroneous impression. It is, therefore, with no little satisfaction that I now cla.s.s the _Diatomaceoe_ with plants, probably maintaining in the South Polar Ocean that balance between the vegetable and the animal kingdoms which prevails over the surface of our globe. Nor is the sustenance and nutrition of the animal kingdom the only function these minute productions may perform; they may also be the purifiers of the vitiated atmosphere, and thus execute in the Antarctic lat.i.tudes the office of our trees and gra.s.s turf in the temperate regions, and the broad leaves of the palm, &c., in the tropics." ...

With respect to the distribution of the _Diatomaceoe_, Dr. Hooker remarks:--

"There is probably no lat.i.tude between that of Spitzbergen and Victoria Land, where some of the species of either country do not exist: Iceland, Britain, the Mediterranean Sea, North and South America, and the South Sea Islands, all possess Antarctic _Diatomaceoe_. The silicious coats of species only known living in the waters of the South Polar Ocean, have, during past ages, contributed to the formation of rocks; and thus they outlive several successive creations of organized beings. The phonolite stones of the Rhine, and the Tripoli stone, contain species identical with what are now contributing to form a sedimentary deposit (and perhaps, at some future period, a bed of rock) extending in one continuous stratum for 400 measured miles. I allude to the sh.o.r.es of the Victoria Barrier, along whose coast the soundings examined were invariably charged with diatomaceous remains, const.i.tuting a bank which stretches 200 miles north from the base of Victoria Barrier, while the average depth of water above it is 300 fathoms, or 1,800 feet. Again, some of the Antarctic species have been detected floating in the atmosphere which overhangs the wide ocean between Africa and America. The knowledge of this marvellous fact we owe to Mr. Darwin, who, when he was at sea off the Cape de Verd Islands, collected an impalpable powder which fell on Captain Fitzroy's s.h.i.+p. He transmitted this dust to Ehrenberg, who ascertained it to consist of the silicious coats, chiefly of American _Diatomaceoe_, which were being wafted through the upper region of the air, when some meteorological phenomena checked them in their course and deposited them on the s.h.i.+p and surface of the ocean.

"The existence of the remains of many species of this order (and amongst them some Antarctic ones) in the volcanic ashes, pumice, and scoriae of active and extinct volcanoes (those of the Mediterranean Sea and Ascension Island, for instance) is a fact bearing immediately upon the present subject. Mount Erebus, a volcano 12,400 feet high, of the first cla.s.s in dimensions and energetic action, rises at once from the ocean in the seventy-eighth degree of south lat.i.tude, and abreast of the _Diatomaceoe_ bank, which reposes in part on its base. Hence it may not appear preposterous to conclude that, as Vesuvius receives the waters of the Mediterranean, with its fish, to eject them by its crater, so the subterranean and subaqueous forces which maintain Mount Erebus in activity may occasionally receive organic matter from the bank, and disgorge it, together with those volcanic products, ashes and pumice.

"Along the sh.o.r.es of Graham's Land and the South Shetland Islands, we have a parallel combination of igneous and aqueous action, accompanied with an equally copious supply of _Diatomaceoe_. In the Gulf of Erebus and Terror, fifteen degrees north of Victoria Land, and placed on the opposite side of the globe, the soundings were of a similar nature with those of the Victoria Land and Barrier, and the sea and ice as full of _Diatomaceoe_. This was not only proved by the deep sea lead, but by the examination of bergs which, once stranded, had floated off and become reversed, exposing an acc.u.mulation of white friable mud frozen to their bases, which abounded with these vegetable remains."

The _Challenger_ has explored the Antarctic seas in a region intermediate between those examined by Sir James Ross's expedition; and the observations made by Dr. Wyville Thomson and his colleagues in every respect confirm those of Dr. Hooker:--

"On the 11th of February, lat. 60 52' S., long. 80 20' E., and March 3, lat. 53 55' S., long. 108 35' E., the sounding instrument came up filled with a very fine cream-coloured paste, which scarcely effervesced with acid, and dried into a very light, impalpable, white powder. This, when examined under the microscope, was found to consist almost entirely of the frustules of Diatoms, some of them wonderfully perfect in all the details of their ornament, and many of them broken up. The species of Diatoms entering into this deposit have not yet been worked up, but they appear to be referable chiefly to the genera _Fragillaria, Coscinodiscus, Choetoceros, Asteromphalus_, and _Dictyocha_, with fragments of the separated rods of a singular silicious organism, with which we were unacquainted, and which made up a large proportion of the finer matter of this deposit. Mixed with the Diatoms there were a few small _Globigerinoe_, some of the tests and spicules of Radiolarians, and some sand particles; but these foreign bodies were in too small proportion to affect the formation as consisting practically of Diatoms alone. On the 4th of February, in lat. 52, 29' S., long., 71 36" E., a little to the north of the Heard Islands, the tow-net, dragging a few fathoms below the surface, came up nearly filled with a pale yellow gelatinous ma.s.s. This was found to consist entirely of Diatoms of the same species as those found at the bottom. By far the most abundant was the little bundle of silicious rods, fastened together loosely at one end, separating from one another at the other end, and the whole bundle loosely twisted into a spindle. The rods are hollow, and contain the characteristic endochrome of the _Diatomaceoe_. Like the _Globigerina_ ooze, then, which it succeeds to the southward in a band apparently of no great width, the materials of this silicious deposit are derived entirely from the surface and intermediate depths. It is somewhat singular that Diatoms did not appear to be in such large numbers on the surface over the Diatom ooze as they were a little further north. This may perhaps be accounted for by our not having struck their belt of depth with the tow-net; or it is possible that when we found it on the 11th of February the bottom deposit was really s.h.i.+fted a little to the south by the warm current, the excessively fine flocculent _debris_ of the Diatoms taking a certain time to sink. The belt of Diatom ooze is certainly a little further to the southward in long. 83 E., in the path of the reflux of the Agulhas current, than in long. 108 E.

"All along the edge of the ice-pack--everywhere, in fact, to the south of the two stations--on the 11th of February on our southward voyage, and on the 3rd of March on our return, we brought up fine sand and grayish mud, with small pebbles of quartz and felspar, and small fragments of mica- slate, chlorite-slate, clay-slate, gneiss, and granite. This deposit, I have no doubt, was derived from the surface like the others, but in this case by the melting of icebergs and the precipitation of foreign matter contained in the ice.

"We never saw any trace of gravel or sand, or any material necessarily derived from land, on an iceberg. Several showed vertical or irregular fissures filled with discoloured ice or snow; but, when looked at closely, the discoloration proved usually to be very slight, and the effect at a distance was usually due to the foreign material filling the fissure reflecting light less perfectly than the general surface of the berg. I conceive that the upper surface of one of these great tabular southern icebergs, including by far the greater part of its bulk, and culminating in the portion exposed above the surface of the sea, was formed by the piling up of successive layers of snow during the period, amounting perhaps to several centuries, during which the ice-cap was slowly forcing itself over the low land and out to sea over a long extent of gentle slope, until it reached a depth considerably above 200 fathoms, when the lower specific weight of the ice caused an upward strain which at length overcame the cohesion of the ma.s.s, and portions were rent off and floated away. If this be the true history of the formation of these icebergs, the absence of all land _debris_ in the portion exposed above the surface of the sea is readily understood. If any such exist, it must be confined to the lower part of the berg, to that part which has at one time or other moved on the floor of the ice-cap.

"The icebergs, when they are first dispersed, float in from 200 to 250 fathoms. When, therefore, they have been drifted to lat.i.tudes of 65 or 64 S., the bottom of the berg just reaches the layer at which the temperature of the water is distinctly rising, and it is rapidly melted, and the mud and pebbles with which it is more or less charged are precipitated. That this precipitation takes place all over the area where the icebergs are breaking up, constantly, and to a considerable extent, is evident from the fact of the soundings being entirely composed of such deposits; for the Diatoms, _Globigerinoe_, and radiolarians are present on the surface in large numbers; and unless the deposit from the ice were abundant it would soon be covered and masked by a layer of the exuvia of surface organisms."

The observations which have been detailed leave no doubt that the Antarctic sea bottom, from a little to the south of the fiftieth parallel, as far as 80 S., is being covered by a fine deposit of silicious mud, more or less mixed, in some parts, with the ice-borne _debris_ of polar lands and with the ejections of volcanoes. The silicious particles which const.i.tute this mud, are derived, in part, from the diatomaceous plants and radiolarian animals which throng the surface, and, in part, from the spicula of sponges which live at the bottom. The evidence respecting the corresponding Arctic area is less complete, but it is sufficient to justify the conclusion that an essentially similar silicious cap is being formed around the northern pole.

There is no doubt that the const.i.tuent particles of this mud may agglomerate into a dense rock, such as that formed at Oran on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean, which is made up of similar materials. Moreover, in the case of freshwater deposits of this kind it is certain that the action of percolating water may convert the originally soft and friable, fine-grained sandstone into a dense, semi-transparent opaline stone, the silicious organized skeletons being dissolved, and the silex re-deposited in an amorphous state. Whether such a metamorphosis as this occurs in submarine deposits, as well as in those formed in fresh water, does not appear; but there seems no reason to doubt that it may. And hence it may not be hazardous to conclude that very ordinary metamorphic agencies may convert these polar caps into a form of quartzite.

In the great intermediate zone, occupying some 110 of lat.i.tude, which separates the circ.u.mpolar Arctic and Antarctic areas of silicious deposit, the Diatoms and _Radiolaria_ of the surface water and the sponges of the bottom do not die out, and, so far as some forms are concerned, do not even appear to diminish in total number; though, on a rough estimate, it would appear that the proportion of _Radiolaria_ to Diatoms is much greater than in the colder seas. Nevertheless the composition of the deep-sea mud of this intermediate zone is entirely different from that of the circ.u.mpolar regions.

The first exact information respecting the nature of this mud at depths greater than 1,000 fathoms was given by Ehrenberg, in the account which he published in the "Monatsberichte" of the Berlin Academy for the year 1853, of the soundings obtained by Lieut. Berryman, of the United States Navy, in the North Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Azores.

Observations which confirm those of Ehrenberg in all essential respects have been made by Professor Bailey, myself, Dr. Wallich, Dr. Carpenter, and Professor Wyville Thomson, in their earlier cruises; and the continuation of the _Globigerina_ ooze over the South Pacific has been proved by the recent work of the _Challenger_, by which it is also shown, for the first time, that, in pa.s.sing from the equator to high southern lat.i.tudes, the number and variety of the _Foraminifera_ diminishes, and even the _Globigerinoe_ become dwarfed. And this result, it will be observed, is in entire accordance with the fact already mentioned that, in the sea of Kamschatka, the deep-sea mud was found by Bailey to contain no calcareous organisms.

Thus, in the whole of the "intermediate zone," the silicious deposit which is being formed there, as elsewhere, by the acc.u.mulation of sponge- spicula, _Radiolaria_, and Diatoms, is obscured and overpowered by the immensely greater amount of calcareous sediment, which arises from the aggregation of the skeletons of dead _Foraminifera_. The similarity of the deposit, thus composed of a large percentage of carbonate of lime, and a small percentage of silex, to chalk, regarded merely as a kind of rock, which was first pointed out by Ehrenberg,[5] is now admitted on all hands; nor can it be reasonably doubted, that ordinary metamorphic agencies are competent to convert the "modern chalk" into hard limestone or even into crystalline marble.

[Footnote 5: The following pa.s.sages in Ehrenberg's memoir on _The Organisms in the Chalk which are still living_ (1839), are conclusive:--

"7. The dawning period of the existing living organic creation, if such a period is distinguishable (which is doubtful), can only be supposed to have existed on the other side of, and below, the chalk formation; and thus, either the chalk, with its widespread and thick beds, must enter into the series of newer formations; or some of the accepted four great geological periods, the quaternary, tertiary, and secondary formations, contain organisms which still live. It is more probable, in the proportion of 3 to 1, that the transition or primary period is not different, but that it is only more difficult to examine and understand, by reason of the gradual and prolonged chemical decomposition and metamorphosis of many of its organic const.i.tuents."

"10. By the ma.s.s-forming _Infasoria_ and _Polythalamia_, secondary are not distinguishable from tertiary formations; and, from what has been said, it is possible that, at this very day, rock ma.s.ses are forming in the sea, and being raised by volcanic agencies, the const.i.tution of which, on the whole, is altogether similar to that of the chalk. The chalk remains distinguishable by its organic remains as a formation, but not as a kind of rock."]

Ehrenberg appears to have taken it for granted that the _Globigerinoe_ and other _Foraminifera_ which are found in the deep-sea mud, live at the great depths in which their remains are found; and he supports this opinion by producing evidence that the soft parts of these organisms are preserved, and may be demonstrated by removing the calcareous matter with dilute acids. In 1857, the evidence for and against this conclusion appeared to me to be insufficient to warrant a positive conclusion one way or the other, and I expressed myself in my report to the Admiralty on Captain Dayman's soundings in the following terms:--

"When we consider the immense area over which this deposit is spread, the depth at which its formation is going on, and its similarity to chalk, and still more to such rocks as the marls of Caltanisetta, the question, whence are all these organisms derived? becomes one of high scientific interest.

"Three answers have suggested themselves:--

"In accordance with the prevalent view of the limitation of life to comparatively small depths, it is imagined either: 1, that these organisms have drifted into their present position from shallower waters; or 2, that they habitually live at the surface of the ocean, and only fall down into their present position.

"1. I conceive that the first supposition is negatived by the extremely marked zoological peculiarity of the deep-sea fauna.

"Had the _Globigerinoe_ been drifted into their present position from shallow water, we should find a very large proportion of the characteristic inhabitants of shallow waters mixed with them, and this would the more certainly be the case, as the large _Globigerinoe_, so abundant in the deep-sea soundings, are, in proportion to their size, more solid and ma.s.sive than almost any other _Foraminifera_. But the fact is that the proportion of other _Foraminifera_ is exceedingly small, nor have I found as yet, in the deep-sea deposits, any such matters as fragments of molluscous sh.e.l.ls, of _Echini_, &c., which abound in shallow waters, and are quite as likely to be drifted as the heavy _Globigerinoe_. Again, the relative proportions of young and fully formed _Globigerinoe_ seem inconsistent with the notion that they have travelled far. And it seems difficult to imagine why, had the deposit been acc.u.mulated in this way, _Coscinodisci_ should so almost entirely represent the _Diatomaceoe_.

"2. The second hypothesis is far more feasible, and is strongly supported by the fact that many _Polycistineoe [Radiolaria]_ and _Coscinodisci_ are well known to live at the surface of the ocean. Mr. Macdonald, a.s.sistant- Surgeon of H.M.S. _Herald_, now in the South-Western Pacific, has lately sent home some very valuable observations on living forms of this kind, met with in the stomachs of oceanic mollusks, and therefore certainly inhabitants of the superficial layer of the ocean. But it is a singular circ.u.mstance that only one of the forms figured by Mr. Macdonald is at all like a _Globigerina_, and there are some peculiarities about even this which make me greatly doubt its affinity with that genus. The form, indeed, is not unlike that of a _Globigerina_, but it is provided with long radiating processes, of which I have never seen any trace in _Globigerina_. Did they exist, they might explain what otherwise is a great objection to this view, viz., how is it conceivable that the heavy _Globigerina_ should maintain itself at the surface of the water?

"If the organic bodies in the deep-sea soundings have neither been drifted, nor have fallen from above, there remains but one alternative-- they must have lived and died where they are.

"Important objections, however, at once suggest themselves to this view.

How can animal life be conceived to exist under such conditions of light, temperature, pressure, and aeration as must obtain at these vast depths?

"To this one can only reply that we know for a certainty that even very highly-organized animals do continue to live at a depth of 300 and 400 fathoms, inasmuch as they have been dredged up thence; and that the difference in the amount of light and heat at 400 and at 2,000 fathoms is probably, so to speak, very far less than the difference in complexity of organisation between these animals and the humbler _Protozoa_ and _Protophyta_ of the deep-sea soundings.

"I confess, though as yet far from regarding it proved that the _Globigerinoe_ live at these depths, the balance of probabilities seems to me to incline in that direction. And there is one circ.u.mstance which weighs strongly in my mind. It may be taken as a law that any genus of animals which is found far back in time is capable of living under a great variety of circ.u.mstances as regards light, temperature, and pressure. Now, the genus _Globigerina_ is abundantly represented in the cretaceous epoch, and perhaps earlier.

"I abstain, however, at present from drawing any positive conclusions, preferring rather to await the result of more extended observations."[6]

[Footnote 6: Appendix to Report on Deep-sea Soundings in the Atlantic Ocean, by Lieut.-Commander Joseph Dayman. 1857.]

Dr. Wallich, Professor Wyville Thomson, and Dr. Carpenter concluded that the _Globigerinoe_ live at the bottom. Dr. Wallich writes in 1862--"By sinking very fine gauze nets to considerable depths, I have repeatedly satisfied myself that _Globigerina_ does not occur in the superficial strata of the ocean."[7] Moreover, having obtained certain living star- fish from a depth of 1,260 fathoms, and found their stomachs full of "fresh-looking _Globigerinoe_" and their _debris_--he adduces this fact in support of his belief that the _Globigerinoe_ live at the bottom.

[Footnote 7: The _North Atlantic Sea-bed_, p. 137.]

On the other hand, Muller, Haeckel, Major Owen, Mr. Gwyn Jeffries, and other observers, found that _Globigerinoe_, with the allied genera _Orbulina_ and _Pulvinulina_, sometimes occur abundantly at the surface of the sea, the sh.e.l.ls of these pelagic forms being not unfrequently provided with the long spines noticed by Macdonald; and in 1865 and 1866, Major Owen more especially insisted on the importance of this fact. The recent work of the _Challenger_ fully confirms Major Owen's statement. In the paper recently published in the proceedings of the Royal Society,[8]

from which a quotation has already been made, Professor Wyville Thomson says:--

"I had formed and expressed a very strong opinion on the matter. It seemed to me that the evidence was conclusive that the _Foraminifera_ which formed the _Globigerina_ ooze lived on the bottom, and that the occurrence of individuals on the surface was accidental and exceptional; but after going into the thing carefully, and considering the ma.s.s of evidence which has been acc.u.mulated by Mr. Murray, I now admit that I was in error; and I agree with him that it may be taken as proved that all the materials of such deposits, with the exception, of course, of the remains of animals which we now know to live at the bottom at all depths, which occur in the deposit as foreign bodies, are derived from the surface.

[Footnote 8: "Preliminary Notes on the Nature of the Sea-bottom procured by the soundings of H.M.S. _Challenger_ during her cruise in the Southern Seas, in the early part of the year 1874."--_Proceedings of the Royal Society_, Nov. 26, 1874.]

"Mr. Murray has combined with a careful examination of the soundings a constant use of the tow-net, usually at the surface, but also at depths of from ten to one hundred fathoms; and he finds the closest relation to exist between the surface fauna of any particular locality and the deposit which is taking place at the bottom. In all seas, from the equator to the polar ice, the tow-net contains _Globigerinoe_. They are more abundant and of a larger size in warmer seas; several varieties, attaining a large size and presenting marked varietal characters, are found in the intertropical area of the Atlantic. In the lat.i.tude of Kerguelen they are less numerous and smaller, while further south they are still more dwarfed, and only one variety, the typical _Globigerina bulloides_, is represented. The living _Globigerinoe_ from the tow-net are singularly different in appearance from the dead sh.e.l.ls we find at the bottom. The sh.e.l.l is clear and transparent, and each of the pores which penetrate it is surrounded by a raised crest, the crest round adjacent pores coalescing into a roughly hexagonal network, so that the pores appear to lie at the bottom of a hexagonal pit. At each angle of this hexagon the crest gives off a delicate flexible calcareous spine, which is sometimes four or five times the diameter of the sh.e.l.l in length. The spines radiate symmetrically from the direction of the centre of each chamber of the sh.e.l.l, and the sheaves of long transparent needles crossing one another in different directions have a very beautiful effect. The smaller inner chambers of the sh.e.l.l are entirely filled with an orange-yellow granular sarcode; and the large terminal chamber usually contains only a small irregular ma.s.s, or two or three small ma.s.ses run together, of the same yellow sarcode stuck against one side, the remainder of the chamber being empty. No definite arrangement and no approach to structure was observed in the sarcode, and no differentiation, with the exception of round bright-yellow oil-globules, very much like those found in some of the radiolarians, which are scattered, apparently irregularly, in the sarcode. We never have been able to detect, in any of the large number of _Globigerinoe_ which we have examined, the least trace of pseudopodia, or any extension, in any form, of the sarcode beyond the sh.e.l.l.

"In specimens taken with the tow-net the spines are very usually absent; but that is probably on account of their extreme tenuity; they are broken off by the slightest touch. In fresh examples from the surface, the dots indicating the origin of the lost spines may almost always be made out with a high power. There are never spines on the _Globigerinoe_ from the bottom, even in the shallowest water."