ON A PIECE OF CHALK 57 



to be identical; and thus proved that the chalk, like 

 the soundings, contains these mysterious coccoliths 

 and coccospheres. Here was a further and a most in- 

 teresting confirmation, from internal evidence, of the 

 essential identity of the chalk with modern deep-sea 

 mud. Globigerince, coccoliths, and coccospheres are 

 found as the chief constituents of both, and testify to 

 the general similarity of the conditions under which 

 both have been formed. 



The evidence furnished by the hewing, facing, and 

 superposition of the stones of the Pyramids, that these 

 structures were built by men, has no greater weight 

 than the evidence that the chalk was built by Globi- 

 gerince ; and the belief that those ancient pyramid- 

 builders were terrestrial and air-breathing creatures 

 like ourselves, is it not better based than the conviction 

 that the chalk-makers lived in the sea? 



But as our belief in the building of the Pyramids by 

 men is not only grounded on the internal evidences 

 afforded by these structures, but gathers strength from 

 multitudinous collateral proofs, and is clinched by the 

 total absence of any reason for a contrary belief; so 

 the evidence drawn from the Globigerince that the 

 chalk is an ancient sea-bottom, is fortified by innumer- 

 able independent lines of evidence; and our belief in 

 the truth of the conclusion to which all positive testi- 

 mony tends, receives the like negative justification from 

 the fact that no other hypothesis has a shadow of 

 foundation. 



It may be worth while briefly to consider a few of 

 these collateral proofs that the chalk was deposited 

 at the bottom of the sea. 



The great mass of the chalk is composed, as we have 

 seen, of the skeletons of Globigerina, and other simple 



