152 THE SEA. 



jections are called, protruding their tips from various 

 surface-apertures of the shell, and then gradually so 

 gradually that the eye cannot recognise the process 

 stretching and expanding their threads and films of 

 delicate sarcode, till in the course of a few hours these 

 will be found to reach almost from side to side of the 

 glass cell. The extension is generally in two opposite 

 directions, corresponding to the long axis of the shell ; 

 though the branched and variously connected films 

 often diverge considerably to either side of this line, 

 giving to the whole a more or less fan-like figure. 

 This array, so very deliberately put forth, is very 

 rapidly withdrawn on any disturbance being given to 

 the little operator ; as when the water in the cell is 

 agitated by a sudden jar on the table, and especially 

 by slightly moving or turning the glass cell-cover. 



It is manifest, from distinct, though small, changes 

 of position in the shell, while these elongations are 

 going on under observation, that it is by means of 

 the adhesion to extraneous objects, and the consequent 

 contraction, of the pseudopodia, that the animal drags 

 its shell along a fixed body. It is remarkable, how- 

 ever, that Mr Macdonald finds the Foraminifera in 

 the Pacific, in general, attached to sea-weeds, and 

 other foreign bodies, by a short, thick footstalk, some- 

 what resembling that of the Lepas, and so precluded 

 from the possibility of locomotion. With his very 

 extensive opportunities of observation on the living 

 forms in the South Sea, he professes to have " never 

 been able to discover their branched pseudopodia, or 



