MICROSCOPIC SHELLS AT VAST DEPTHS. 27 



specimens were as pure and free from sand as the snow- 

 flake that falls on the lea is from the dust of the earth. 

 Indeed these soundings suggest that the sea is always letting 

 fall showers of these microscopic shells. This process con- 

 tinued during ages has covered the depths of the ocean with 

 a mantle, consisting of organisms as delicate as the macled 

 frost, and as light as the undrifted snow-flake on the moun- 

 tain." * 



But how great a world of speculative enquiry do 

 these facts reveal to the contemplative mind! 



Here, if the author of these pages may be permitted 

 to hazard an opinion, we may dimly perceive the ves- 

 tiges of the world's creation. For these facts indicate 

 to us, as do all the works of Nature to those who 

 study them carefully, how The Great Creator, during- 

 the fulness of an immense eternity, has caused this 

 little ball of earth to build itself up, atom by atom. 



We have no evidence here of any great convulsion ; 

 nor is the doctrine of the Latin poet and philosopher 

 Lucretius " Docui nil posse creari de nihilo," taught 

 nearly two thousand years ago, here done any violence 

 to. What these facts tell us so plainly that he who 

 runs may read is that little by little the water is here 

 laying down the foundations of future cretaceous for- 

 mations, precisely similar to the white chalk cliffs which 

 our southern coasts are built up with. 



" That white chalk is now forming in the depths of the 

 ocean may be regarded as an ascertained fact, because the 

 'Globigerina Bulloides' is specifically undistinguishable from 

 a fossil which constitutes a large portion of the chalk of 

 Europe." f 



* The Physical Geography of the Sea, by Lieutenant Maury, 

 U.S.N., 1 6th edit., 1877, p. 225. 



j Elements of Geology, by Sir Chas. Lyell, Bart., 6th edit., p. 318. 



