IN THE MUD OF THE LEVANT. 5 



Casciana, in Tuscany, 10,454 microscopic cham- 

 bered shells, and had observed that the rest of the 

 stone was composed of fragments of shells, 

 of minute spines of Echini, and of a sparry 

 calcareous matter. He was also aware that 

 analogous microscopic organisms existed in vast 

 abundance in the waters of the Mediterranean.* 

 Lamarck had subsequently observed the abun- 

 dance of minute, but perfect Foraminifera in the 

 strata in the neighbourhood of Paris, and re- 

 marked " that the remains of such minute 

 animals have added much more to the mass of 

 materials which compose the crust of the globe, 

 than the bones of hippopotami, elephants, and 

 whales. "f The Abbe Alberto Fort is, Targioni 

 Tozzetti, and other observers, had likewise noticed 

 the existence of strata composed entirely of 

 accumulated Nummulites.J 



Such was the imperfect state of things when, in 

 1835, Professor Ehrenberg startled the scientific 

 world by the announcement, that there were in 

 existence rocks composed wholly and entirely of 

 the fossil remains of animals so minute, that 



* Lyell's Principles of Geology. Vol. i. p. 11. 



t Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 388. 



X Parkinson's Organic llemains, pp. 156 to 158. 



