MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 



69 



PEOTOZOA. 



(Fig. I.) 

 The lowest and simplest animals in the sea are not, 

 as some seaside visitors suppose, the jelly-fishes, zoophytes, 

 and sea-anemones, nor even the sponges, but they are 

 minute delicate creatures, the Protozoa, found swimming 

 in the clear water or lying on the mud and sea-weeds, and 



Fig. I. 



for the most part far too small to be seen without the 

 microscope. And yet they are of immense importance in 

 the world. They are very numerous, and form the food of 

 larger animals in the sea. Many of them are eaten 

 directly by young fishes, and a French naturalist has 



