414 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. ix. 



bodies seem to have been taken in to the Myxo- 

 brachict, as food, the hard parts accumulating in 

 cavities in the animal's body after all the available 

 nourishment had been absorbed. It is undoubted 

 that a large number of the organisms whose skele 

 tons are mixed with the ooze of the bottom of the 

 sea live on the surface, the delicate silicious or cal 

 careous shields or spines falling gradually through 



FIG. 64. 'Coccosphere.' (x. 1000.) 



the water and finally reaching the bottom, what 

 ever be the depth. I think that now the balance of 

 opinion is in favour of the view that the coccoliths 

 are joints of a minute unicellular alga living on the 

 sea-surface and sinking down and mixing with the 

 sarcode of Bathybius, very probably taken into it with 

 a purpose, for the sake of the vegetable matter 

 they may contain, and which may afford food for 

 the animal jelly. What the cocco spheres are, and 



