348 THE Microscope 
Carboniferous strata Diatom valves identical in the minutest 
particular with the existing Hpithemia gibba and E. granulata, and 
since similar facts are recorded with regard to the Foraminifera, 
he concludes that the same laws of generic and specific characters 
prevailed, and always have prevailed, equally in the lowest and 
in the highest families of both the vegetable and animal king- 
doms—Journ. R. M. Society. 
A VERY BEAUTIEUL INCIDENT.—While sitting at my window, 
which faces east, one morning in June, viewing a slide of Funaria 
hygrometrica capsules, I experienced the following: My slide was 
illuminated by a white cloud, which, as the sequel will show, 
came directly between the sun and the object under view. After 
watching for some minutes, suddenly the cloud moved away 
from between the sun and the condenser I was using, thereby 
condensing the direct rays of the sunlight upon the capsule, 
causing the peristome, by the condensed heat, to open in all its 
splendor, disclosing the interior of the capsule with its beautiful 
golden spores. Almost as quickly a cloud came between the sun 
and object, when the peristome went back to its normal condition. 
I do not remember ever witnessing so magnificent a spectacle, 
which was the more striking because unexpected. My instru- 
ment was a binocular with one-inch objective-—John A. Howe, 
in Science Gossip. 
ANIMAL LIFE IN THE GULF StREAM.—The surface-waters in the 
Gulf Stream teem with minute life of all kinds. There the 
young of larger animals exist, microscopic in size; and adult 
animals which never grow large enough to be plainly visible to 
the naked eye occur in immense quantities. By dragging a fine 
silk net behind the vessel, these minute forms are easily taken, 
and when placed in glass dishes millions uncounted are seen 
swimming backward and forward. When looked at through a 
microscope we see young jelly-fishes, the young of barnacles, 
crabs, and shrimps, besides the adult microscopic species, which 
are very abundant. The toothless whale finds in these his only 
food. Rushing through the water, with mouth wide open, by 
means of his whalebone strainers the minute forms are separated 
from the water. Swallowing those obtained after a short period 
of straining, he repeats the operation. The abundance of this 
kind of life can be judged from the fact that nearly all kinds of 
whales exist exclusively upon these animals, most of them 
