ANNUAL ADDRESS, MDCCCLXXI. 25 



Professor Agassiz has of late been similarly engaged in 

 dredging observations off the coast of North America, 

 and finds there more or less extensive agglomerations of 

 foraminifera. Dr. Carpenter and others have built on the 

 discovery of those beds- of calcareous mud the hypothesis 

 of their continuity with the chalk of ancient time, and so 

 represent us as still living in the cretaceous epoch. The 

 author of this hypothesis has the support of several natu- 

 ralists, but Sir Charles Lyell has declared against him, 

 and consequently the notion remains a debatable matter. 

 However, the abandonment of the hypothesis would in no 

 way lessen the truth of the fact of the important place 

 occupied by these smallest of beings in the building up of 

 the earth's crust. 



I did intend to sketch the operation in the same 

 direction of other small beings, though large in comparison 

 with those we have been considering, namely, the sponges 

 and corals, but your patience must be exhausted, and I 

 must at once conclude this lengthy address, by thanking 

 you for the kind attention you have vouchsafed me and 

 wishing for the increased success and usefulness of the 

 association. 



