Multitudinous Life 



earbones, which are formed of peculiarly hard 

 material. 



And never once, throughout the whole cruise, 

 was any single bone of Man brought up from 

 the ocean-bed. 



After all is this surprising ? Where even 

 whale-skeletons are mastered, small chance can 

 remain for a human skeleton to stand out loni^ 

 against absorption. 



The marvel is how tiny foraminifer shells 

 can last as they do. The majority no doubt 

 disappear. Unless they reach the bottom quickly, 

 and are there covered up and protected, they 

 must soon be dissolved. 



Yet that vast numbers do thus escape we 

 know by the masses of ooze found over the 

 sea -bottom ; by the fifty millions or more of 

 square miles of the ocean -floor carpeted with 

 coral muds and sands, and with oozes of fora- 

 minifera and kindred shells. 



Only down to a depth of about two miles. 

 Beyond that, carbonate-of-lime shells are seldom 

 found. It is believed that these light shells 

 take as much as three or four days to sink one 

 mile ; and in about two miles they all succumb 

 to the power of sea-water. But the hard little 

 diatom cases are present in all depths, more 



189 



