36 The Vital Functions of tie ^^fo^uT^l^vl'^lm^^ 
soundings) have I met with, any proof that this zone exists as an 
integral or even occasionally integral portion of the structure. In- 
deed Prof. Huxley admits that it is not visible whilst the Goccoliths 
are still adherent, either in what he calls the " loose " or the " com- 
pact " type of Coecosj)]iere. 
On the other hand, Avhere detached Goccoliths are to be found 
mixed up with the more muddy deposits of the sea-bed, or the debris 
of minute animal and vegetable matter with which they are asso- 
ciated when met with as free floating organisms which have been 
taken into the digestive cavities of the Saljow and minute Hydrozoa 
of tropical seas,* granular particles, in each case partaking of the 
character and colour of the minute matters by vfhich they were 
surrounded, may often be seen to occupy the space indicated. But 
there does not appear to me to be any direct proof that the 
granular zone is anything more than a mere accidental accretion ; 
or that it owes its presence to any inherent condition without tvhich 
the organism would hs incoynplete. Moreover, as might be antici- 
pated, in those cases where the Goccoliths occur in the material of 
the soundings, granular particles, apparently identical in composition, 
may be seen to occupy the minute cavities in dead shells of Foramini- 
fera, in mineral masses, and the like. 
The most remarkable circumstance, however (as showing that 
there is not necessarily any connection between Bathybius and the 
development of the Goccoliths and Goccospheres), is to be found in 
the fact that in those pure Glohigerine deposits in which there is 
scarcely a trace of muddy or slimy substance, the Goccosjpheres and 
Goccoliths exist also in profusion, and the latter but rarely present 
the appearance of a granular zone. 
I may state that, after a careful and long-continued study of these 
organisms, whether occurring as free-floating inhabitants of the sur- 
face waters of the Indian Ocean and tropical portion of the Atlantic, 
as constituent particles in the deposits being formed at the bottom 
of existing seas, or amongst the fossil earths of the Post-tertiary 
period, I see no reason to alter my opinion by regarding the free 
Goccoliths as having been derived from any other source than their 
parent Goccosjpheres. In some deep-sea deposits, as stated by Prof. 
Huxley, free Goccoliths do certainly occur in overwhelming number 
as compared with Goccospheres. But, on the other hand, it is equally 
true that, at times, Goccospheres are present in great abundance, 
whereas free Goccoliths are, comparatively speaking, scarce.t Goupling 
* I may repeat here, what I announced cursorily in a paper on the Polycystina, 
read by me on the 10th May, 1865, before the Microscopical Society, and published 
in the ' Transactions ' for that year ; that I had also discovered Goccoliths in the 
Barbadoes and other fossil earths ; and Goccospheres as free-floating organisms in 
tropical seas. Towards the close of the same year, I again found them in abundance 
in the British Ghannel. 
t In my previously published observation on the nature of tlie " oozy" deposits 
