FOEAMINIFERA. 



379 



Plancus counted 6000 in an ounce of sand from the Adriatic, 

 and d'Orbigny reckoned no less than 3,849,000 in a pound of 

 sand from the Antilles. Along the whole Atlantic coast of the 

 United States, the plummet constantly brings up masses of fo- 

 raminiferous shells from a depth of ninety fathoms, so that the 

 vast extent of ■ocean-bottom, which itself forms but a small part 

 of the domains they occupy, is literally covered with theii 

 exuviae. 



Thus their numbers surpass all human conception, nor can 

 any other series of beings be compared to them in this respect ; 

 not even the minute crusta- 

 ceans which colour thousands 

 of square miles on the surface 

 of the sea, and, according to 

 Scoresby, form almost exclu- 

 sively the food of the huge 

 Greenland whale ; nor the in- 

 fusory animals of the fresh- 

 water, whose shields compose 

 the Bilin slate quarries in 

 Bohemia ; for these are limited 

 in their distribution, whereas 

 the Foraminifera occur in all 



parts Of the World. Amoeba. 



The resemblance of the Fo- 

 raminifera to the nautili and ammonites at first led natura- 

 lists to suppose that they formed part of the same class, which 

 in a long course 

 of centuries had 

 dwindled down in 

 less congenial seas 

 to almost invisible 

 dimensions ; but a 

 closer investiga- 

 tion proved them 

 to belong to a 

 much lower order 

 of beings, near- 

 ly related to the 

 Amoebae, which likewise occur all over the ocean, 



Amcsba, 



showing the extemporaneous feet formed by evanescent projections 

 snowing of t , ie >- geneI . al plastic mass 0( the animsj. 



Other animals 



