as must be caused by so vast a column of water, remains 

 a mystery! From the result of deep sea sonndings and 

 dredgings it appears that the entire sea bottom is positively 

 coated with a layer of living jelly which, probably, forms 

 food for more highly organised life, but which can itself 

 obtain i^ourishment only from, mineral sources. The ever- 

 lasting snow of the North Pole still sustains life, both animal 

 and vegetable, and the part that is, perhaps, the most desti- 

 titute of living creatures, is, where at first sight we should 

 most expect them, in some of the tropical parts of South 

 America, where exist burning arid deserts, apparently quite 

 devoid of organic life. "Here," says Darwin, "I saw neither 

 bird, quadruped, reptile, nor insect, except the vulture, which 

 preys on the carcases of the unfortunate mules which have 

 perished of fatigue in attempting to cross the desert." Even 

 the very air we breathe is peopled with minute dust composed 

 of infusorial life, and that in regions, where we should least 

 expect it. Far away at sea, 1,500 or 1,600 miles away from 

 shore Professor Ehrenberg discovered no less than 67 different 

 kinds of infusoria in five little specimens of thin microscopic 

 dust. How these living forms are generated is a marvel of 

 science. Some say from spontaneous generation, though it 

 is contrary to all our ideas that any living being can spring 

 into existence of itself, and yet they are generated and live in 

 solutions of organic matter which have been put in hermeti- 

 cally sealed flasks and submitted to a boiling temperature for 

 upwards of 4 hours. You would think no germs of life could 

 survive after such a boiling as this ! And yet we know that 

 not only some water weeds, but even fish will live, and appa- 

 rently enjoy life, in water so hot that it would actually hoil 

 them if dead ! Many fish will live in water so hot that it is 

 impossible to bear the hand in it, and Humboldt saw living 

 fishes thrown up from a crater in South America, in water 

 whose temperature was 210°, only 2 degrees less than boiling! 

 I have before alluded to those tiny living atoms called Dia- 

 toms, each measuring from 5,^,0 to lo^ of an inch, and which 

 yet exist or existed in such vast myriads as to form no in- 

 conceivable portion of the earth's surface. Some recent 

 discoveries have revealed the curious fact that there exists a 

 rather extensive list of animals inhabiting vast gloomy caves 

 and cells, which are perfectly without any vestiges of eyes i 



