FOSSIL INFUSORIA. 



59 



flint, varying in diameter from one-three hundredth to one-Jive hundredth of an 

 inch. 



PEAT BOGS. The peat bogs both of ancient and modern origin, are frequently 

 found to contain beds and layers of a white flinty earth, which is entirely com- 

 posed of the shells of animalcules. In many swamps of Ireland and England, 

 earthy strata of this peculiar nature have been found ; and in this country, Prof. 

 Bailey has discovered near West Point a deposit eight or ten inches thick, and 

 in all probability several hundred yards in extent, wholly made up of the flinty 

 shells of the Bacillaria or stick-animalcules, in a fossil state. " This deposit," 

 says Prof. B., " is about a foot below the surface of a small peat bog, imme- 

 diately at the foot of the southern escarpement of the hill on which the celebra- 

 ted Fort Putnam stands. In draining this bog a large ditch was dug, and among 

 the matter thrown out, my attention was attracted by a very light white or clay 

 colored substance, which, when examined closely in the sunshine, showed min- 

 ute, glimmering, linear particles. On submitting it to observation, by means of 

 a good microscope, I found it to be almost entirely composed of fossil Infusoria. 

 There can be no doubt, that in this place there are several tons of the shells of 

 beings so minute as to be barely visible as brilliant specks, when carefully ob- 

 served in a strong light by the naked eye. Hun- p . 94 

 dreds of years must have elapsed before such 

 an accumulation could have been made." The 

 kind of shell that is most abundant in this 

 earth is delineated in figure 94, which repre- 

 sents a specimen magnified three hundred 

 and fifty times ; and in figure 95 is shown 

 the appearance presented by a little of the 

 earth diffused in a drop of water, and mag- 

 nified about fifty times. The earth is here 

 seen consisting of a great number of shells 



of various shapes and sizes, clearly proving, that the deposit is no- 

 thing more than a vast assemblage of immense multitudes of minute 

 fossil structures. 



Fig. 95. 



FORAMINIFERA. The fossil shells of these minute forms of animal life now 

 exist in such profusion, rising into mountains, and extending in broad and deep 

 layers beneath the surface of the earth, that it has been observed by the learned 

 Dr. Buckland, "that the remains of such .minute animals have added much 

 more to the mass of materials, which compose the exterior crust of the globe, 

 than the bone of elephants, hippopotami, and whales." 



In these vast collections the Nummulites largely prevail. They are divided 

 into numerous species, varying in dimensions from the size of a crown-piece to 

 that of a grain of sand. The spiral shell of the nummulite is delineated in 



