Ill EXPEDITION OF THE "CHALLENGER" 89 



hexagonal network, so that the pores appear to lie at the 

 bottom of a hexagonal pit. At each angle of this hexagon the 

 crest gives off a delicate flexible calcareous spine, which is some- 

 times four or five times the diameter of the shell in length. 

 The spines radiate symmetrically from the direction of the 

 centre of each chamber of the shell, and the sheaves of long 

 transparent needles crossing one another in different directions 

 have a very beautiful effect. The smaller inner chambers of the 

 shell are entirely filled with an orange-yellow granular sarcode ; 

 and the large terminal chamber usually contains only a small 

 irregular mass, or two or three small masses run together, of 

 the same yellow sarcode stuck against one side, the remainder of 

 the chamber being empty. No definite arrangement and no 

 approach to structure was observed in the sarcode, and no 

 differentiation, with the exception of round bright-yellow oil- 

 globules, very much like those found in some of the radiolarians, 

 which are scattered, apparently irregularly, in the sarcode. We 

 never have been able to detect, in any of the large number of 

 Globigerince which we have examined, the least trace of pseudo- 

 podia, or any extension, in any form, of the sarcode beyond the 



shell. 



* * * 



"In specimens taken with the tow-net the spines are very 

 usually absent ; but that is probably on account of their extreme 

 tenuity ; they are broken off by the slightest touch. In fresh 

 examples from the surface, the dots indicating the origin of the 

 lost spines may almost always be made out with a high power. 

 There are never spines on the Globigerince from the bottom, 

 even in the shallowest water." 



There can now be no doubt, therefore, that 

 Globigerince live at the top of the sea ; but the 

 question may still be raised whether they do not 

 also live at the bottom. In favour of this view, it 

 has been urged that the shells of the Globigerince 

 of the surface never possess such thick walls as 



