86 Selections from Huxley 



and that there is n6t a shadow of reason for believing 

 that the habits of the Globigetina of the chalk differed 

 from those of the existing species. But if this be true, 

 there is no escaping the conclusion that the chalk itself 

 5 is the dried mud of an ancient deep sea. 



In working over the soundings collected by Captain 

 Dayman, I was surprised to find that many of what 

 I have called the " granules " of that mud, were not, as 

 one might have been tempted to think at first, the mere 



10 powder and waste of Globigerince , but that they had a 

 definite form and size. I termed these bodies " coc eo- 

 liths," and doubted their organic nature. Dr. Wallich 

 verified my observation, and added the interesting dis- 

 covery that, not unfrequently, bodies similar to these 



15 " coccoliths " were aggregated together into spheroids, 



which he termed " coccospheres." So far as we know, 



these bodies, the nature of which is extremely puzzling 



and problematical, were peculiar to the Atlantic soundings. 



But, a few years ago, Mr. Sorby, in making a careful 



20 examination of the chalk by means of thin sections and 

 otherwise, observed, as Ehrenberg had done before him, 

 that much of its granular basis possesses a definite form. 

 Comparing these formed particles with those in the 

 Atlantic soundings, he found the two to be identical ; and 



25 thus proved that the chalk, like the soundings, contains 

 these mysterious coccoliths and coccospheres. Here was 

 a further and a most interesting confirmation, from in- 



and that the stomachs of the star-fishes were full of Globi- 

 gennce. This discovery removes all objections to the existence 

 30 of living GlobigeriiKe at great depths, which are based upon the 

 supposed difficulty of maintaining animal life under such con- 

 ditions; and it throws the burden of proof upon those who object 

 to the supposition that the Globigenna live and die where they 

 are found. 



