GIANTS AND FIOMIES. 29 



ti'ons of the Chalk have revealed thom to such an extent that it 

 18 considered as largely composed of the tests of these tiny 

 creatures, The thought is overwhelming, that the Chalk Downs 

 of England and France owe to these their very existence. 



Sir C. Wyville Thompson, comparing the character of the 

 Foramenifer deposits at the bottom of the ocean, brought up 

 everywhere by the dredge, with that of the constitution of the 

 Chalk, came to the conclusion that the present was in certain 

 rcvspects a continuation of the Tertiary — Chalk Period. In 

 Prof. Jones' Tabular View of the Range of Foramenifera, in 

 Time, we find that of 54 existing species there are 39 in the 

 Cretaceous, 16 in the Lias.^ic, 11 in the Triassic and 6 in the 

 Carboniferous. Six species — Fusulina, Dentalina, Nodosana, 

 Valvulina, Saccammina — existing in the seas of the Carboni- 

 ferous Period, still are found at the bottom of the ocean, pre- 

 sumably the testa of living Foramenifers. The longe'st direct 

 line of descent — Protozoan, Protoplasmic. 



18, I made an intimate acquaintance with the Fora- 

 menifera and other "subjects" of the Paris Basin in 1867, 

 when I was Executive Commissioner of Nova Scotia, at L' 

 Exposition Universelle. The Socict(5 Geologique de France, of 

 which I was a member, had its Retinion for the year in and 

 around Paris. We M'ent, under the direction of Edouard de 

 Verneuil, to Pont Ste. Maxence. In our examination of the 

 Geology of the district, special attention was directed to the 

 Nummulites. Here they are seen forming a conglomerate of 

 considerable thickness. Their extension to the Alps was a 

 subject of discussion as well as their place in the Paris Basin. 

 I missed the meetings in Paris itself. Subsequently, however, 

 I carried out the programme. — At Porte de Versailles I fo-jnd 

 the nummulites between the Great lower limestone (calcaire 

 grossier inferieur) and the underlying clays." Among the 

 specimens that I collected are two nummulites, having the 

 interior filled entirely or partially with the green mineral 

 glauconite. This is regarded as illustrating the mineralization 

 of the Eozoon Canadense. Going to the south side of the 

 Basin, I examined the geology of Meudon. Hero was 



I 



