The Mighty Deep 



The ooze was found to be composed chiefly 

 of tiny rounded shells, called " Globigerina," 

 which belonor to a larorer class, known as 

 ** Foraminifera." And the white chalk of our 

 British cliffs is made principally of Foraminifera 

 shells. 



This last name springs from two Latin words, 

 meaning ** I bear a hole." The Foraminifera 

 shells bear many holes. Each is in shape a tiny 

 collection of rounded compartments, usually not 

 more than sixteen in number ; and each com- 

 partment has numerous minute holes in its walls. 



Its inhabitant, a speck of jelly, is one of the 

 least of living creatures, belonging to the great 

 Division of ''Protozoa," or ''First Animals." 

 None rank below them, for they are on the first 

 or lowest rung in the ladder of life. 



A jelly-speck has no head, no limbs, no 

 stomach, not even a mouth. It can take in food 

 at any part of its soft body. When it wishes — 

 and apparently even a jelly-speck can wish, 

 which at once separates it from inanimate 

 materials — it makes a temporary tentacle or 

 "foot," by pushing out a slender filament of its 

 own substance through one of the tiny holes 

 in its shell. Whence the name " Rhizopod." 



Not all the Foraminifera specks live in the 

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