A414 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP, 1X. 
bodies seem to have been taken in to the JMyxro- 
brachia as food, the hard parts accumulating in 
cavities in the animal’s body after all the available 
nourishment had been absorbed. It is undoubted 
that a large number of the organisms whose skele- 
tons are mixed with the ooze of the bottom of the 
sea live on the surface, the delicate silicious or eal- 
sareous Shields or spines falling gradually through 
Fia. 64.—‘ Coecosphere.’ (x. 1000.) 
the water and finally reaching the bottom, what- 
ever be the depth. I think that now the balance of 
opinion is in favour of the view that the coccoliths 
are joints of a minute unicellular alga living on the 
sea-surface and sinking down and mixing with the 
sarcode of Bathybius, very probably taken into it with 
a purpose, for the sake of the vegetable matter 
they may contain, and which may afford food for 
the animal jelly. What the coccospheres are, and 
