A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 107 



in 1847, published in Vol. VIII. of "Transactions of 

 " the Literary and Philosophical Society of Man- 

 " Chester," with the title of " Some of the Microscopic 

 " Objects Found in Mud of the Levant, and other 

 " Deposits, with Remarks on the Mode of Formation 

 " of Calcareous and Infusorial Siliceous Rocks." This 

 memoir was so well received by the scientific world 

 that I almost felt an obligation resting on me to 

 carry still further a series of similar investigations, 

 I received complimentary letters from Darwin, Mur- 

 chison, W. B. Carpenter, Professor J. Phillips, and 

 a host of other naturalists, who seemed to assume 

 that I should go further into the subject ; and in 

 1848 I resumed the study of Foraminifera, my 

 knowledge of which was further increased by two 

 incidents. I should, in passing, remark that atten- 

 tion was not now being drawn to the Foraminifera 

 for the first time. Lamarck had long ago figured the 

 fossil forms so abundant in the Calcaire Grossier of 

 the Paris basin. At the end of the last century, 

 Soldarii had published a large number of remarkable 

 figures of recent forms ; whilst in more modern times 

 D'Orbigny, though, like all his predecessors, misled 

 by the idea of their nautiloid affinities, was diligently 

 studying their varied forms. 



A ship belonging to my father was chartered for 

 the Danube, to bring back a cargo of corn. I 

 instructed the captain to miss no opportunity of 

 obtaining for me samples of the bed of the ^Egean 

 Sea. He was not unsuccessful in the materials 



