Air., 7. D. Macdoiuild on IWatHmiferafruin tJieFeejee Islands. 195 



and released the Cephalopods from a reputed alliance which 

 must have been based on the most superficial observation. An- 

 other idea, however, requiring some qualification, has been sub- 

 stituted by this naturalist, namely that the Foraminifera hold a 

 position intermediate between the Echinodermata and Polypifera. 

 " Much less complete than the Echinodermata or the Polypifera 

 as to their internal organization, they have, through their fila- 

 ments (pseudopodia), part of the locomotion of the former, and 

 are, by their isolated, non-aggregated, free existence, more ad- 

 vanced in the scale than the latter. This individual existence 

 of the Foraminifera, the liberty they enjoy, and their mode of 

 locomotion, are characters which deserve to be taken into con- 

 sideration*.^' 



The fancied resemblance of the pseudopodia, or the filaments 

 that protrude through the cell-walls of the Foraminifer, to the 

 ambulacral tubes of an Echinus may partake somewhat of ana- 

 logy, but this does not necessarily imply affinity. Apart, how- 

 ever, from the internal anatomy of the Foraminifera (a subject 

 which I hope to enter upon more in detail at a future period), 

 I merely desire, at present, to reconcile the facts above stated, 

 from my own observations, with those doctrines so prominently 

 set forth in the quotation just given from D'Orbigny, namely 

 that these curious little animals are free and locomotive. 



The spicula of Sponges and Asteroid Polypes, and the minute 

 or embryonic shells of Gasteropoda, Pteropoda and Conchifera, 

 are usually found with the Foraminifera in sea-bottoms. The 

 pelagic shells descend into the deep by their own gravitation, 

 but the others are washed off from every coast and reef; thus, 

 millions of organic forms enrich the dark bed of the ocean and 

 smoothen its rugged surface. The muddy bottom outside the 

 Heads of Port Jackson is nearly altogether composed of these 

 materials, and a portion brought up from a depth of 70 fathoms 

 contained some ie,sv Foraminifers which I have not detected 

 elsewhere. 



In connexion with the geological bearing of the subject now 

 briefly reviewed, it is of importance to observe that Lunulites 

 are frequently brought up on the sounding-lead, in much the 

 same condition as the Foraminifera, while living examples of 

 those Bryozoa are to be found on the Australian coast at the 

 depth of a few fathoms. I have not yet sufficiently proved their 

 existence in the recent state amongst the South Sea Islands, 

 though this can scarcely be doubted. 



* D'Orbigny, Sur les Foraminiferes Fossiles du Bassin Tertiaire de 

 Vienne, as quoted in the English Cyclopa-dia, 



13* 



