370 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 







Ph,lc by IV. SavitU-Kinu F.Z-S-] lMtlf,rd-m-Seii 



POLYCYS TS 



Flinty-iheiUd organiims of microscopic Jimendotis. The /ifing 

 animals consist of tiny specks of transparent jelly, from lukich 

 radiate innumerable false feet of hair-like fineness 



in which the water of the Nile was as it were 

 " turned to blood, and all the fish died," has been 

 attributed to a phenomenal development of these 

 animalcules, which, on dying, polluted and putre- 

 fied the water. Instances of fishes being destroyed 

 in vast quantities through a like agency through- 

 out even extensive sea-areas have been occasionally 

 recorded. While these pages are going to press 

 an account has appeared in an American journal 

 of red water caused b\- these flagellate animalcules, 

 which occurred last Jul}' for an extent of at least 

 200 miles along the coast of California, producing 

 with their decomposition a most sickening odour, 

 and the death of shoals of fishes, octopods, sea- 

 cucumbers, antl other organisms. 



Next to the Flagellates come the RoOT-FOOTED 

 Anim.-\LCULES, which possess no mouth and no 

 hairs or lashes, but progress by pushing out lobes 

 of their jelly-like substance in any desired direction, 

 into which the rest of the body flows. Food is 

 picked up at any point with which an acceptable 

 morsel may be brought in contact. The little gelatinous animal known as an Amceba is one of 

 these. Related forms of this jell>- animalcule secrete shells of varying form and structure. 

 Some of these, known as FoR.XMS, are of carbonate of lime, and wonderfully like nautiluses and 

 other of the higher molluscan shells in aspect. Though so minute, scarcely visible to the 

 unassisted eye, they occur in the sea in such numbers as to form by their aggregations 

 the more considerable ingredients of vast areas of the earth's strata, both past and present. 

 The chalk clifts of Albion and the white tenacious ooze of the broad Atlantic are thus to a 

 large extent composed of the shells of minute organisms, which formerly flourished near the 

 surface of the ocean, but sank on their death to its abysmal depths. 



The simplest of the forams fabricate shells with a single chamber, which are often 

 elegantly vase- or flask-shaped. More usually, however, the shell represents the product of 

 repeated buddings or outgrowths, and may attain considerable dimensions. Flattened circular 

 forms of this t_\-pe much resemble time-worn coins, and are hence called NUMMULITES. Their 

 fossil-shells enter mainly into the composition of rocks which extend through North Africa 

 anO Asia to the Himalaya, and supplied the stone of which the Pyramids are built. 



Allied to the Forams, but distinguished by the radiating, needle-like contour of their 

 false feet and the flinty texture of their shells, are an equally numerous assemblage of 

 organisms known as R.\I)I()L.\R[ANS. Like the Forams, they are inhabitants of the sea, and 

 their discarded shells enter extensively into the constitution of strata. A little globular fresh- 

 water form, devoid of a shell, and with slender bristle-like feet radiating in every direction, 

 is known as the Sl'\-.\n'IMALCULE, and forms a connecting-link between the last two groups. 



F"rom Man to Flgg-laying Mammals, Molluscs to Animalcules, the vast scheme of the 

 Animal Creation has now been successively portrayed. With such simple gelatinous life-specks 

 as the Amoeba and its allies TllE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLi") make their exit : unorganised 

 organisms, groping blindly in the darkness — " Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." 



