162 THE SEA. 



to the pseudopodia of the Foraminifera, and to the 

 whip-like filaments of many Infusoria; while their 

 parallelism to any organs known to exist in plants is 

 much more vague and remote. 



We may leave this question to be settled by others. 

 The decision will not affect the wondrousness of the 

 facts connected with the economy of these almost 

 inappreciably minute beings ; namely, that they, far 

 more than any other created beings that we are cog- 

 nizant of, incomparably more than the lions and 

 tigers, the bulls and behemoths, the rhinoceroses and 

 elephants, the cachalots and whales, far more than 

 even busy man himself, are the master-builders, to 

 whose unceasing agency God has committed the task 

 of manufacturing, of augmenting, and of variously 

 modelling this immense /coo-pos of our present resi- 

 dence. Inhabiting all waters, and swarming in rivers, 

 estuaries, and lakes to such an extent, that their sili- 

 ceous shells, by constant deposition, block up old har- 

 bours, narrow and spoil navigable channels, and form 

 enormous beds and strata of earth, it is yet in the 

 high seas that these innumerable artisans have their 

 great workshop ; it is in the ocean, boundless and 

 fathomless, that the grandest processes are going on 

 of their stupendous handiwork. 



Far up in the frozen north, and where the mighty 

 barrier of eternal ice forbids the approach of man to 

 the antarctic pole, the tiny Diatoms are building their 

 Cyclopean masonry, and laughing to scorn the cast- 

 ings of our mightiest furnaces, and the forgings of our 



