186 |^ajr Sermmw* (Essays, mtir |3Ufaiefos. [ix. 



However, tlie important points for us are, that the 

 living Globigerince are exclusively marine animals, the 

 skeletons of which abound at the bottom of deep seas ; 

 and that there is not a shadow of reason for believing 

 that the habits of the Globigerince 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 

 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 

 powder and waste of Globigerince, but that they had a 

 definite form and size. I termed these bodies " cocco- 

 liths" and doubted their organic nature. Dr. Wallich 

 verified my observation, and added the interesting 

 discovery that, not unfrequently, bodies similar to these 

 "coccoliths" were aggregated together into spheroids, 

 which he termed " coccospheres" So far as we knew, 

 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 

 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 



M'Clintock, in 1860, living star-fish were brought up, clinging to the lowest 

 part of the sounding-line, from a depth of 1,260 fathoms, midway between 

 Cape Farewell, in Greenland, and the Eockall banks. Dr. Wallich ascertained 

 that the sea-bottom at this point consisted of the ordinary Globigerina ooze, 

 and that the stomachs of the star-fishes were full of Globigerince. This 

 discovery removes all objections to the existence of living Globigenince at 

 great depths, which are based upon the supposed difficulty of maintaining 

 animal life under such conditions ; and it throws the burden of proof upon 

 those who object to the supposition that the Globigerina live and die where 

 they are found. .*** 



