64 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



question is insoluble ; it is sunk in an abyss of obscurity. The 

 coral, or rather the aggregation of living beings which bear the name, 

 are attached to the rock which has seen their birth, and which will 

 witness their death : the Infusoria, of microscopic dimensions, which 

 revolve perpetually in a circle infinitesimally small ; the marvellous 

 Amoebae, which in the space of a minute can change their form a 

 hundred times under the surprised eyes of the observer, are, in truth, 

 mere atoms charged with life. Yet all these beings have an existence 

 to appearance purely vegetative. In their obscure and blind life, 

 have they consciousness or instinct? Do they know what takes 

 place at the three-thousandth part of an inch from their microscopic 

 bodies? To the Creator alone does the knowledge of this mystery 

 belong. 



It would be foreign to the object of this work to enumerate all 

 the minute details concerning the innumerable creatures which swarm 

 in the ocean and on its confines. We shall perhaps best consult the 

 convenience of our readers by saying a few words about the Protozoa 

 in general, before proceeding to discuss the three classes which form 

 this division of the animal kingdom. 



The Protozoa represent animal life reduced to its most simple 

 expression. They are organised atoms, mere animated and moving 

 points, living sparks. As they are the simplest forms of animal life as 

 regards their structure, so also are they the smallest. Their micro- 

 scopic dimensions hide them from our view. The discovery of the 

 microscope was a necessary step to our becoming acquainted with 

 many of these beings, whose existence was ignored by the ancient 

 philosophers, and only revealed in the seventeenth century by the 

 discovery of the microscope. When, armed with this marvellous 

 instrument, we examine these minute organisms, as Leuwenhoek did 

 when, for example, he applied his magnifying glass to some infusions 

 of macerated vegetable and animal substances, or when he scrutinised 

 a drop of water taken from the ocean, from a river, or a lake, we, as 

 he did, will discover there a new world, a world which will be partly 

 unveiled in these pages. 



Some modern writers believe that the Protozoa are mere cellular 

 organisms, such as we find among the vegetable kingdom. Accord- 

 ing to this hypothesis, the Protozoa would be to the animal kingdom 

 what the Algse and Fungi are to the vegetable world. This idea is 

 so far wrong, that it has been founded upon a basis of pure theory. 

 " In reality," says Paul Gervais and Van Beneden, " the animals 

 which we thus designate very rarely resemble elementary plants/' 

 substance of which the bodies of the Protozoa are composed is 



