160 A HANDBOOK FOR SOUTHPORT. 



particles. The sarcode is of such non-consistency that the 

 filaments in coming in contact with one another coalesce 

 when there are several points of contact, forming a rough net- 

 work, all being retracted into the substance of the animal at 

 its will. 



The Foraminifera themselves are wholly marine. The 

 physiological characteristics of the animals are apparently the 

 same as in the fresh- water orders. Food is embedded and 

 digested, and progression is effected by the aid of pseudo- 

 podia. The generic differences consist in the animal forming 

 shells of many beautiful, curious, and varied forms. They are 

 found in abundance in all seas, the maximum of development 

 being in the torrid, the minimum in the frigid zone. They are 

 commonly found alive upon sea-weeds ; every dredging from 

 the bottom will bring them up. I have found Foraminifera in 

 great abundance upon the Southport shore amongst the fine 

 debris left at every tide mark. They are brought up, almost 

 unmixed with sand or mud, when sounding the lowest known 

 depths of the Atlantic, where, until very recently, it was sup- 

 posed animal life could not exist, on account of the pressure 

 of the mass of water. It is, however, a fact that they are found 

 in the greatest abundance at the lowest depths, but they are 

 then fewer in species or variety than in shallower waters. 

 Ehrenberg says that chalk is composed, in a great proportion, 

 of their shells, and that they are found to be the principal, or 

 a very large constituent of whole mountain ranges of rocks. 

 We thus see that one of the lowest forms of organic life of the 

 present day has been continued from vastly remote geological 

 ages, whilst in the higher and more developed forms of life we 

 have only analogical and modified resemblances. 



