IN THE MUD OF THE LEVANT. 125 



lina communis, and Rotalina umbilicata."* The 

 same volume which contains this remark, also con- 

 tains the opposing observation of M. Ehrenberg, — 

 that, of the Foraminifera found in the white Chalk, 

 nine still exist, of which six occur in the North 

 Sea, at Cuxhaven ; four of the six being found in 

 the white Chalk of England, which M.D'Orbigny 

 distinctly includes in his supposed analogy to the 

 Adriatic. On seekino; for the analogues of the 

 beautiful little fossils from the Charing chalk, I 

 found examples of either several of the species, or 

 of others exhibiting the closest resemblance to 

 them, in the cabinet of Mr. Bean, at Scarborough, 

 who chiefly obtained them from various localities 

 on the Scotch coast. At the same time, many 

 recent and fossil species bear so close an external 

 resemblance to each other, that it is a most difiicult 

 thing to decide with absolute certainty which are 

 and which are not distinct. Some of our best 

 observers in England doubt, for instance, the 

 identity of M. D'Orbigny's Dentalina from the 

 Chalk and the recent D. communis ; yet this is 

 one of the species upon which that most acute 

 observer builds his hypothesis. 



* Idem. p. 462. 



