FOSSIL INFUSORIA, 



155 



FOSSIL INFUSORIA. 



•"rARTLTNG and almost incredible as the asser- 

 tion may appear to some, it is none the less 

 a fact, established beyond all question by the 

 aid of the microscope, that some of our most 

 7rj^ gigantic mountain-ranges, such as the mighty 

 Andes, towering into space 25,250 feet above 

 the level of the sea, their base occupying so 

 vast an area of land ; as also our massive lime- 

 stone rocks ; the sand that covers our bound- 

 less deserts ; and the soil of many of our wide- 

 extended plains; are principally composed of 

 portions of invisible animalcules. And as Dr. Buckland truly observes, 

 " The remains of such minute animals have added much more to the 

 mass of materials which compose the exterior crust of the globe than 

 the bones of elephants, hippopotami, and whales.'' 



The stratum of slate, fourteen feet thick, found at Bilin, in Austria, 

 was the first that was discovered to consist almost entirely of minute 

 flinty shells. A cubic inch does not weigh quite half an ounce ; and in 

 this bulk it is estimated there are not less than forty thousand millions 

 of individual organic remains ! This slate, as well as the Tripoli, found 

 in Africa, is ground to a powder, and sold for polishing. The similarity 

 of the formation of each is proved by the microscope ; and their pro- 

 perties being the same, in commerce they both pass under the name of 

 Tripoli. One merchant alone in Berlin disposes annually of twenty 

 tons weight. The thickness of a single shell is about the sixth of a 

 human hair, and its weight the hundred-and-eighty-seven-millionth part 

 of a grain. The well-known Turkey-stone, so much used for the pur- 

 pose of sharpening razors and tools ; the Rotten-stone of commerce, a 

 polishing material ; and the pavement of the quadrangle of the Royal 

 Exchange, are all composed of infusorial remains. 



The bergh-mehl, or mountain-meal, in Norway and Lapland, has 

 been found thirty feet in thickness ; in Saxony twenty-eight feet thick; 



