28 



GIANTS AND PIGMIES. 





iiifiii 



1 ,r: ;||! 



liil 



j w 



were tenants of the deep in the respective periods of Geologi- 

 cal History to which they have been assigned. The localities 

 where they are found were then, therefore, all sultmarine. The 

 Rocky Mountain range is considered to have been then merely 

 represented by a range of low islands extending through the 

 wide waste of waters. . -. ,■.-.■, 



1'7. With the "Foraraenifer," of the Lias formation, Mr. 

 Moore introduces us to a very important sub-division of the 

 Animal Kingdom. These rank among the lowest creaturea ; 

 but although apparently structureless, many of them form tests 

 (shells) which are remarkable on account of their beauty. 

 These are often perforated by microscopic foramens (holes) by 

 which the inmate had external communication. Many of the 

 tests resemble the nautilus, whence they were once regarded 

 as cpphalopods ; others have something the shape of coins. 

 Some of them are small ; others | an inch or more in diameter. 

 They are called num.midl.na or nummidites (numtmis — a coin). 

 Although our Liassic Zone is not regarded as the first of the 

 appearance of foramenifers, it is yet remarkable on account of 

 the large proportion which are identical with those now existing 

 in all seas, according to the observations of H. M. S. Challenger 

 and other expeditions. Prof. T, Rupert Jones now (since the 

 death of Dr. Carpenter) the highest authority on Foramenifera, 

 identified these Foramenifera for Mr, Moore. In his "Distribu- 

 tion of Foramenifera in Time," he shows that sixteen " recent " 

 forms are found in the " Liassic." The largest of these are 

 pigmean. Still it is maintained by Sir J, Williaipi Dawson, 

 Dr. Carpenter and Prof. Jones, that the first and oldest of 

 Foramenifera lived in the Archaean Period. Prof. Jones says 

 of Eozoon (dawn animal): " In the * Cambrian ' of Bohemia 

 and the * Laurentian ' of Canada we have Eozoon of as high 

 etructure as any of the hyaline (glassy) forms, in patches several 

 square inches in size, forming together aggregations of con- 

 fiiderable dimensions," This is certainly a giant among Fora- 

 menifers. 



The great microscopist Ehrenberg first found Foramenifera in 

 tlie Chalk of Meudon, south of Paris. Since then examina- 



