20 



THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



Fossils from the chalk. 



In one ounce of chalk from a tropical coast he 

 reckoned four millions of these lovely shells. In the 

 deep-sea beds, by the voyage of the Challenger, it was 



proved that, in one square 

 mile, there must have been 

 sixteen tons of these living 

 creatures called foramini- 

 fera, their variety and 

 beauty being very wonder- 

 ful. Sixteen tons! How 

 many would go to a ton of 

 these living bodies, if between 28 and 29 millions of their 

 skeletons, when filled up ivith chalk, weighed, in my ex- 

 perience, one pound ? 



To give some idea of numbers, and the difficulty of 

 comprehending high figures when we get beyond a 

 million, Dr. Dallinger states and a remark made to 

 me while writing this chapter, by one who knows him 

 personally, may be here mentioned, namely, that he 

 " takes nothing upon trust or hearsay " that, if a man 

 were to count as fast as ever he could beyond a hundred, 

 so as to avoid multiplicity of words, he could never 

 exceed ten thousand in one hour. At this rate, counting 

 night and day, without any time for sleep or food, he 

 would take four days and four hours to count a million. 

 But suppose he were required to count one million a 

 million times over that is, a billion it would take him 

 ten thousand years to do it. 



Should any reader care to know the mystery of a 

 " 'billion^ I would advise him to consult the late Henry 

 Bessemer's curious calculation in my "Horses of the 

 Sun," pp. 125-127, in which are several elaborate illus- 

 trations, set forth in a manner suitable to any ordinary 

 mind, and very remarkable in their results. 



