414 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. ix. 



bodies seem to have been taken in to the Myxo- 

 brachia, as food, the hard parts accumulating in 

 cavities in the animal's body after all the available 

 nourishment had been absorbed. It is undoubted 

 that a large number of the organisms whose skele- 

 tons are mixed with the ooze of the bottom of the 

 sea live on the surface, the delicate silicious or cal- 

 careous shields or spines falling gradually through 



FIG. 64. 'Coccosphere.' (x. 1000.) 



the water and finally reaching the bottom, what- 

 ever be the depth. I think that now the balance of 

 opinion is in favour of the view that the coccoliths 

 are joints of a minute unicellular alga living on the 

 sea- surf ace and sinking down and mixing with the 

 sarcode of Bathybius, very probably taken into it with 

 a purpose, for the sake of the vegetable matter 

 they may contain, and which may afford food for 

 the animal jelly. What the coccospheres are, and 



