106 



DANDY BOOK OF 



its weight. Jonas Plancus, who first drew them in 1739, 

 counted 8,000 in six ounces ; D'Orbigny, in a pound of sea- 

 sand from the West Indies, 3,849,000. Schultze, by a 

 fine sieve, separated all the coarse grains from the sand of 

 Molo di Gaeta, which is remarkably rich in the smaller 

 Foraminiferous shells ; about one-half of the residuum 

 consisted of well-preserved Rhizopod shells. "When we 

 learn further, that the sea-lead along the whole Atlantic 



coast of the States continually brought up masses of Fora- 

 miniferous shells, from depths reaching to 90 fathoms : 

 that, therefore, along this great distance — which is, how- 

 ever, but a small part of the enormous territory occupied by 

 them — they plaster the entire bed of ocean — it will be seen 

 no animal group can, in the slightest degree, cope with them 

 in numbers ; not even the fossil infusoria, of which 41,000 

 are found in every cubic inch of the stratum of Biline 



