212 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



smaller portion constituting the dry earth, in immediate con- 

 tact with the surrounding atmosphere ; the larger portion 

 consisting of water, formed, perhaps, thousands of years ago 

 from gaseous matters fused by electric fire, and now inces- 

 santly undergoing decomposition in the laboratory of the clouds 

 and in the pulsating vessels of animals and plants. Organic 

 forms descend deep into the womb of the earth, wherever 

 the meteoric rain-waters can penetrate into natural cavities,. 

 or into artificial excavations and mines. The domain of the 

 subterranean cryptogamic flora was early an object of my 

 scientific researches. Thermal springs of the highest tempera- 

 ture nourish small Hydropores, Conferva3 and Oscillatoria3. 

 Not far from the Arctic circle, at Bear Lake, in the New 

 Continent, Richardson saw flowering plants on the ground 

 which, even in summer, remains frozen to the depth of twenty 

 inches. 



It is still undetermined where life is most abundant : whe- 

 ther on the earth or in the fathomless depths of the ocean. 

 Ehrenberg's admirable work on the relative condition of 

 animalcular life in the tropical ocean and the floating and 

 solid ice of the Antarctic circle, has spread the sphere and 

 horizon of organic life before our eyes. Siliceous-shelled 

 Polygastrica and even Coscinodiscae, alive, with their green 

 ovaries, have been found enveloped in masses within twelve 

 degrees of the Pole; even as the small black glacier flea, 

 Desoria Glacialis, and Podurella?, inhabit the narrow tubules- 

 of ice of the Swiss glaciers, as proved by the researches of 

 Agassiz. Ehrenberg has shown that on some microscopic 

 infusorial animalcules (Synedra and Cocconeis], other species- 

 live parasitically ; and that in the Gallionellas the extraordinary 

 powers of division and development of bulk are so great, tla&t 

 an animalcule invisible to the naked eye can in four days- 

 form two cubic feet of the Bilin polishing slate. 



In the ocean, gelatinous sea- worms, living and dead, shine 

 like luminous stars (5), converting by their phosphorescent 



