A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST iog> 



closely, on the whole, to those arrived at by M. 

 Dujardin. 



At a later period I investigated the shells of other 

 Foraminifera by preparing microscopic sections from 

 them, and in this way I showed that whilst the 

 organisation of the living slimy animal was as low 

 as it well could be, the structure of many of their 

 shells was as complicated as it was beautiful. 



At a somewhat later date Carpenter carried on a 

 series of investigations, in which he adopted the 

 same methods, and arrived at similar conclusions. 

 The second of the two incidents to which I have 

 referred, though different, led to equally important 

 results. 



My correspondent, Mr. Reckitt of Boston, had 

 made the discovery, that wells sunk a little deeper 

 than usual reached a wide spread layer of sea sand, 

 showing that at a geologically very recent period 

 the waters of the Wash had flowed much more 

 deeply and broadly inland than had hitherto been 

 known to be the case. Specimens of a deep layer 

 of sand obtained in a similar way demonstrated that 

 the land on that side of the great Norfolk estuary 

 had been under water. Samples of the sand from 

 these two opposite localities furnished me with a 

 rich harvest of beautiful foraminiferous shells, the 

 study of which led to new and not unimportant 

 results. In the latter part of the last century a writer 

 of the name of Walker established a small genus of 

 minute flask-shaped shells, under the name of Lagena. 



