CHAP. IX.] THE DEEP-SEA FAUNA. 411 



to give a slight viscosity to the mud of the surface 

 layer. If the mud be shaken with weak spirit of 

 wine, fine flakes separate like coagulated mucus ; 

 and if a little of the mud in which this viscid con- 

 dition is most marked be placed in a drop of sea- 

 water under the microscope, we can usually see, 

 after a time, an irregular network of matter resem- 

 bling white of egg, distinguishable by its maintaining 

 its outline and not mixing with the water. This 

 network may be seen gradually altering in form, and 

 entangled granules and foreign bodies change their 

 relative positions. The gelatinous matter is therefore 

 capable of a certain amount of movement, and there 

 can be no doubt that it manifests the phenomena of 

 a very simple form of life. 



To this organism, if a being can be so called which 

 shows no trace of differentiation of organs, consist- 

 ing apparently of an amorphous sheet of a protein 

 compound, irritable to a low degree and capable of 

 assimilating food, Professor Huxley has given the 

 name of Bathybius haeckelii (Fig. 63). If this have a 

 claim to be recognized as a distinct living entity, ex- 

 hibiting its mature and final form, it must be referred 

 to the simplest division of the shell-less rhizopoda, or 

 if we adopt the class proposed by Professor Haeckel, 

 to the monera. The circumstance which gives its 

 special interest to Bathybius is its enormous extent : 

 whether it be continuous in one vast sheet, or broken 

 up into circumscribed individual particles, it appears 

 to extend over a large part of the bed of the ocean ; 

 and as no living thing, however slowly it may live, 

 is ever perfectly at rest, but is continually acting and 

 reacting with its surroundings, the bottom of the 



