io RIUZOPODA. 



and delicacy of sculpture. These shells, being composed almost 

 entirely of pure flint (silex), arc almost indestructible, and to a 

 practised eye are at once seen to have belonged to vegetable 

 organisms resembling those represented in our engraving 

 2, ), which must have lived for centuries in some quiet lake, and, 

 as they perished, sinking to the bottom of the water which covered 

 the vast area where they are found, left their shells records of 

 their history. 



CHAPTER II 

 FIRST DIVISION OF INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 



RADIATED ANIMALS. 

 ROOT-FOOTED ANIMALCULES. RHIZOPODA,* 



TO return to our magnified drop of water. We have already 

 described the Amoeba diffluens^ H i; : -. 2, r>), as resemb 

 film of ever-changing cloud, so soft in its consistence that it is but 

 a little removed from fluidity. It Is not firm enough even to be 

 called jelly : it may almost be compared to a drop of ^urn-water, 

 or mucus, and yet it is endowed with very extraordinary capa- 

 bilities. It evidently has a voluntary power of moving from place 

 to place, and its mode of doing so is not inaptly / the 



epithet "diffruens" Jlvwing-aiuay, by which it is distin^u \^\\>A. On 

 first perceiving one of these creatures under the fieM of the n 

 scope, it will be found perhaps contracted japelcss mass, 



resembling a small patch of mucilage, and offering little to attract 

 attention ; while we watch it, however, it b' move, sp. 



out intoashape something like that represented in our f. 

 we are almost tempted to make a drawing of so 

 Meanwhile, it flows into another out water 



spilled upon a greasy board, and fO ,lace, 



and form to form. The microscopic film is hungry too, 

 but having neitli- ii nor stomach, it is not at fir.r easy to 



conjecture how such a feat can be accon Its body is 



rally seen to contain the shells of Nu-. fada (Fig, 4), and oth'-r 



'.irnilar or^ani .rrr, ; it <\<><:. not ICCffl to IWallow them, but over- 

 whelms them with its semi-fluid substance, and as it passe 



* fa'. wfa Tottf, pott*, podoft, ajoot. f 6./< 



