THE PROTOZOA 13 



attached to them, and so they have. They are, or are 

 believed to be, the oldest of animal forms ; that time 

 was when they were the sole inhabitants of this earth. 



(Minute vegetable forms must, however, have preceded 

 them, as the chief distinction between vegetable and animal 

 life is that the former can manufacture protein compounds 

 from the raw elements of earth, while the latter must obtain 

 these already prepared by the action of some other living 

 form.) 



And surely enough, in the Laurentian rocks of Canada, 

 the oldest page in Mother Earth's diary that has mention of 

 living things at all, there are records of them, and they 

 must even then have existed in such numbers that their 

 shells have formed vast rocky reefs. 



To these early fossil ones geologists have given the name 

 Eozoon the " dawn of life animal." 



Then in the ages that have followed they have lived and 

 died in such quantity that it is mostly of their remains that 

 our chalk hills are built, in some places thousands of feet in 

 thickness. 



It is also to the existence of these little animals that 

 England owes its classical name Albion, " the white 

 land " a title bestowed upon it two thousand years ago 

 by the Gauls, who could see its Foraminif era-built cliffs 

 across the Channel. 



To see some of the living forms we have choice of two 

 methods. If a deposit of mud from low down in tide 

 range is available, place some of it in a wide-mouthed jam 

 jar with sea- water, shake up well, and then pour off the 

 fine portion. (This is a reversal of the process we employed 

 in getting the dead shells.) The living " forams " are 

 heavier than the mud, and will sink ; by repeated washings 

 the water will be clear, and only the clean, gritty particles 

 that were among the mud will remain. Now fill the jar 

 with clean, clear water, and set it aside. In the course of 



