The Mighty Deep 



The ooze was found to be composed chiefly 

 of tiny rounded shells, called " Globigerina," 

 which belong to a larger class, known as 

 " Foraminifera." And the white chalk of our 

 British cliffs is made principally of Foraminifera 

 shells. 



This last name springs from two Latin words, 

 meaning " I bear a hole." The Foraminifera 

 shells bear many holes. Each is in shape a tiny 

 collection of rounded compartments, usually not 

 more than sixteen in number ; and each com- 

 partment has numerous minute holes in its walls. 



Its inhabitant, a speck of jelly, is one of the 

 least of living creatures, belonging to the great 

 Division of "Protozoa," or " First Animals." 

 None rank below them, for they are on the first 

 or lowest rung in the ladder of life. 



A jelly-speck has no head, no limbs, no 

 stomach, not even a mouth. It can take in food 

 at any part of its soft body. When it wishes 

 and apparently even a jelly-speck can wish, 

 which at once separates it from inanimate 

 materials it makes a temporary tentacle or 

 "foot," by pushing out a slender filament of its 

 own substance through one of the tiny holes 

 in its shell. Whence the name " Rhizopod." 



Not all the Foraminifera specks live in the 

 144 



