THE DISTRIBUTIOX OF ANIMALS. 371 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



LIFE is everywhere. In the air above, the earth be- 

 neath, and the waters under the earth, we are surrounded 

 with life. Nature lives : every pore is bursting with life ; 

 every death is only a new birth, every grave a cradle. 

 The air swarms with Birds, Insects, and invisible animal- 

 cules. The waters are peopled with innumerable forms, 

 from the Protozoan, millions of which would not weigh a 

 grain, to the Whale, so large that it seems an island as it 

 sleeps upon the waves. The bed of the sea is alive with 

 Crabs, Molluscs, Polyps, Star- fishes, and Foraminifera. 

 Life everywhere on the earth, in the earth, crawling, 

 creeping, burrowing, boring, leaping, running. 



Nor does the vast procession end here. The earth we 

 tread is largely formed of the debris of life. The quarry 

 of limestone, the flints which struck the fire of the old 

 Revolutionary muskets, are the remains of countless skele- 

 tons. The major part of the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, 

 and the chalk cliffs of England are the monumental rel- 

 ics of by-gone generations. From the ruins of this living 

 architecture we build our Parthenons and Pyramids, our 

 St. Peters and Louvres. So generation follows generation. 

 But we have not yet exhausted the survey. Life cradles 

 within life. The bodies of animals are little worlds hav- 

 ing their own fauna and flora. In the fluids and tissues, 

 in the eye, liver, stomach, brain, and muscles, parasites are 

 found ; and these parasites often have their parasites liv- 

 ing on them. 



