60 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



Kentish chalk pit whence our " lump " was derived, 

 has furnished to the firm who now hold and work it, a 

 total of more than half a million of tons, or 561,895 

 cubic yards of chalk. Figures would fail to convey 

 any idea of the number of Foraminifera which this 

 one firm of cement-makers have disturbed, and 

 removed from their last resting-place. These minute 

 shells are so small that it would require one hundred 

 and fifty of many of them, placed side by side, to 

 extend over one-twelfth of an inch. But if we take 

 one of the most common forms (that of Globigerind), 

 the diameter of which is the one hundred and fiftieth 

 of an inch, it would require nearly ten millions 

 placed end to end to reach a mile. Accepting this 

 as the basis of another calculation, and we find that 

 our Kentish firm have dug from their chalk pit the 

 shells of Foraminifera notwithstanding their minute 

 size sufficient to extend, at least, 1,006,915,840 

 miles. From one chalk pit, out of many hundreds 

 in operation, one manufacturer of lime and cement 

 has, within about a quarter of a century, dug out 

 the shells of these minute animals, each one nearly 

 invisible to the naked eye, in sufficient quantity to 

 reach more than a thousand millions of miles. Or, 

 to* represent it under another form, enough to go 

 round the world, in an unbroken line, more than forty 

 thousand times. 



We have ventured the assumption, that, taking 



