100 MULTUM E PARVO. 



moving. They appeared to extend deep, however, and in 

 all probability, were of a similar character to the aggre- 

 gations of what is called whale-food in the higher lati- 

 tudes. Each of these Scdpce measured about half an inch 

 in length ; but so close was their aggregation, that, by a 

 sudden plunge of an iron-rimmed towing-net, half the 

 cubic contents, from which all water had percolated, 

 generally consisted of nothing but one thick gelatinous 

 pulp. Each individual presented a minute yellow diges- 

 tive cavity, of the size of a millet-seed, which contained 

 Diatom acete, Foraminifera, and other organic particles. 



" If we take into account the numbers of Diatomacese 

 and Foraminifera that must exist in order to afford even 

 a small integral proportion of the diet of these creatures, 

 the vast renewal of supply that must be perpetually going 

 on, and the equally vast multitude of these Diatom-con- 

 sumers that yield, in their turn, a source of food to the 

 gigantic Cetaceans and other large creatures of the sea, — 

 it becomes possible, in some measure, at least, to form an 

 estimate of the manner in which the deep-sea deposits 

 become accumulated." 



The same observer has, with great ingenuity, applied 

 these facts to the solution of that much-vexed question, 

 the origin of the masses of flint that are found in the 

 chalk. Diatoms are found in great numbers in these 

 nodules, but the difficulty was, how to account for their 

 aggregation in these irregular masses. This is solved by 

 the hypothesis that they are the excrement of whales, — 

 the insoluble remains of the Diatoms, originally devoured 



