254 UTILIZATION OP MINUTE LIFE. 



and that of the equally microscopic but much larger 

 Foraminifera, is remarkable by its extent. 



" Not only in the polar regions," says Ehren- 

 berg, " is there an uninterrupted development of 

 active microscope life, where larger animals can no 

 longer exist, but we find that the microscopic 

 animals collected in the Antarctic expedition of 

 Captain James Ross exhibit a remarkable abun- 

 dance of unknown and often most beautiful forms. 

 Even in the residuum obtained from the melting 

 ice swimming about in round fragments in 

 latitude 70 3 10', there were found upwards of fifty 

 species of siliceous-shelled Polygastria and Coscino- 

 discce, with their green ovaries, and therefore living, 

 and able to resist the extreme severity of the cold. 

 In the Gulf of Erebus, sixty-eight siliceous- shelled 

 Polygastria and Phytolitharia, and only one species 

 of a calcareous- shelled Polythalamia (Foraminifera), 

 were brought up by a lead sunk to a depth of from 

 1242 to 1620 feet." 



Dr. J. Hooker found siliceous Diatomacece* in 

 countless numbers between the parallels of 60 and 

 80 south, where they gave a colour to the sea, and also 

 to the icebergs floating in it. The death of these 

 organisms in the South Arctic Ocean is producing 



* The Diatomacece are vegetables for some authors, animals for 

 others. See on this subject my paper entitled Protoctista, cited on 

 P. 241 of the present work. 



