CHAP, ix.] THE DEEP-SEA FAUNA. 415 



what relation, if any, they have to the coccoliths, 

 we do not know. 



Living upon and among this Bathybius, we find 

 a multitude of other protozoa, foraminifera and 

 other rhizopods, radiolarians, and sponges; and we 

 as yet know very little of the life-history of these 

 groups. There can be no doubt that when their 

 development has been fully traced many of them 

 will be found to be di- or poly-morphic, and that 

 when we are acquainted with their mode of multi 

 plication we shall meet with many cases of pleo- 

 morphism and wide differences between the organs 

 and products involved in propagation and in repro 

 duction. I feel by no means satisfied that Bathybius 

 is the permanent form of any distinct living being. 

 It has seemed to me that different samples have been 

 different in appearance and consistence; and although 

 there is nothing at all improbable in the abundance 

 of a very simple shell-less e moner } at the bottom 

 of the sea, I think it not impossible that a great 

 deal of the 'bathybius, 5 that is to say the diffused 

 formless protoplasm which we find at great depths, 

 may be a kind of mycelium a formless condition 

 connected either with the growth and multiplication 

 or with the decay of many different things. 



Many foraminifera of different groups inhabit 

 the deep water, lying upon or mixed in the upper 

 layer of the globigerina ooze, or fixed to some foreign 

 body, such as a sponge, coral, or stone; and all of 

 these are remarkable for their large size. In the 

 'warm area/ and wherever the bottom is covered with 

 ooze, calcareous forms predominate, and large sandy 

 cristellarians, with their sand-grains bound together 



