GlANTS AND rtGMtF.S. 2iH 



to check their increase, the infusoria? would long 

 since have filled the world. 



When the body of the animal is soft without any 

 calcareous addition, we find no traces at the bottom 

 of the sea of their short existence. But many species 

 are furnished with a sort of shell, the dSbris of 

 which constitutes the greater part of the sand formed 

 on the ocean-bottom. 



The foraminifersB contribute largely in conjunction 

 with the infusorise to the levelling-up of the sub- 

 marine valleys. Their microscopic remains — not 

 very long known to be so, indeed — occur in such 

 enormous masses that no part of the earth's crust is 

 of greater interest to the geologist. 



If we compare with the whale, the shark, and other 

 giants of the creation, the modest infusoria), the fora- 

 minifersB, and the Noctiluca miliaris, of which we find 

 as many as 25,000 individuals in thirty cubic centi 

 metres of water, we shall be disposed to attach very 

 little, if any, importance to the infinitely little. The 

 giant attracts our eyes by his mass and his force, 

 while we often strive in vain to see the pigmies of 

 creation, as we should look in vain for an atom of 

 dust blown by the wind. The giant, however, will 

 pass away, leaving but few traces of his existence. 

 Here and there a bone or a tooth, peihaps a foot- 

 print, informs us of the fact that a monster once 



