62 



Capt. Herschel on Spectroscopic Observations [Jane 17, 



cannot be attributed to increase of Pressure ; since the examples of Cornu- 

 spira, Biloculina, and Cristellaria found at depths exceeding 500 fathoms, 

 were far larger than any that are known to exist in the shallower waters of 

 the colder temperate zone. But as these all occurred in the warm area, 

 whose bottom-temperature indicates a movement of water from the Equa- 

 torial towards the Polar region, it is probable that their size is related to 

 the temperature of their habitat, which is found to be in like relation to 

 the general character of the Fauna of which they formed part. On the 

 other hand, as we now know that the climate of the deepest parts of the 

 ocean- bottom, even in Equatorial regions, has often (if not universally) 

 Arctic coldness, the dwarfing of the abyssal Foraminifera of those regions 

 is fully accounted for on the same principle. 



Besides these examples of new or remarkable forms of Foraminifera, the 

 ' Lightning' dredgings yielded some peculiar bodies, the examination of 

 which would seem to throw light upon the obscure question of the mode 

 of Reproduction in this group. One set of these are cysts, of various 

 shapes and sizes, composed of sand-grains loosely aggregated, as in the 

 tests of Lituola and Astrorhiza ; which, when broken open, are found to 

 be rilled with aggregations of minute yellow spherules, not enclosed in any 

 distinct envelope. These are supposed by the Author to be reproductive 

 gemmules formed by the segmentation of the sarcodic body of a Rhizo- 

 pod, in the same manner as ' zoospores ' are formed in Protophytes by the 

 segmentation of their endochrome. Of such segmentation he formerly 

 described indications in the sarcodic body of Orbitolites ; and corre- 

 sponding phenomena have been witnessed by Prof. Max Schulze. But in 

 another set of cysts, of similar materials but of firmer structure, bodies 

 are found having all the characters of ova, with embryos in various stages 

 of development. In none of these, however, does the embryo present 

 characters sufficiently distinctive to enable its nature to be determined ; 

 and the hypothesis of the Foraminiferal origin of these bodies chiefly rests 

 upon the conformity in the structure of the wall of the cysts with that of 

 the tests of Lituola and Astrorhiza, and upon the improbability that such 

 cysts should have been constructed by animals of any higher type. 



"Spectroscopic Observations of the Solar Prominences, being Ex- 

 tracts from a Letter addressed to Sir J. F.W. Herschel, Bart., 

 F.R.S., by Captain Herschel, R.E., dated ' Bangalore, June 

 12th and 15th, 1869*.' " Communicated by Sir J. Herschel. 

 Received July 19, 1869. 



1 have too little time to devote to lengthy descriptions, and so I send you 

 a sketch of what I saw this morning (fig. 1). I have seen many such views 

 during the last month, but none so distinct in outline as to-day — more by 

 * Received since the end of the Session. 



