GEOLOGICAL. 107 



these tiny animals, and assigned them to sixteen different 

 families, to which he has given names, thus laying the 

 foundation of a new branch of zoology meteoric geology. 

 ^Yhen we consider the height from which these masses 

 fell their contents, and the thoughts which they suggest, 

 and think also of the fossil contents of the mountains of 

 our own world; when we dig into the earth and see 

 the masses of dead matter there deposited, which supply 

 us with the enormous quantity of artificial manure, all 



Enlarged polypes of the red coral, with extended tentacles. 



foreseen and forethought of, that there might be nourish- 

 ment for man and beast while the present dispensation 

 lasts ; and again, when from such thoughts oar attention 

 is directed to the deepest sea-soundings such as were 

 taken on board the Challenger in 1876, and what is dis- 

 closed at the deepest ascertained measurement of the 

 ocean, we are lost and bewildered in amazement, and 

 know not what to think, as our brain nearly reels in 

 our study. 



