FORAMINIFERA IN CHALK AND FLINT. 361 
well preserved. This fossil so closely resembles the decalci- 
_ fied body of a recent Rotalia or Rosalina, that an eminent 
observer who saw it under the microscope at the meeting of 
the Royal Society, without knowing its history, concluded it 
to be the body of a recent animal. This extraordinary pre- 
servation of the soft delicate tissues of an animal of the 
cretaceous seas, invisible to the unassisted eye, through the 
Lien. 119. REMAINS OF FORAMINIFERA; IN CHALK AND FULInT. 
(Viewed by transmitted light ; highly magnified.) 
Fig. 1.—Shell of a RosaxinA, filled with mineral matter; in flint. 
2.—Soft parts of a TEXrULARIA; in flint. 
3.—Cells of TEXTULARIA ELONGATA; filled with mineral 
matter; the shell not visible; in flint. 
4,—The soft body of a Roratra, deprived of its shell, and par- 
tially uncoiled; obtained from Chalk, x 450 diameters. 
incalculable ages that must have elapsed since the deposition 
of the chalk in which it was enshrined, 1s a fact as remarkable 
as the occurrence of the carcass of the Lena Mammoth, in 
the frozen soil of Siberia. 
The soft parts of other foraminifera have been discovered 
in a similar state of preservation. A fine example of the 
body of a Yextularia, in flint, is figured, Lign. 119, fig. 2. 
The form and disposition of the segments in Textularia 
