35 
went to add to the jelly-like material of the flints, leaving the 
moulds in the chalk. They are not very abundant in the 
chalk, and it would seem that this group has in our times 
obtained a higher development while the Pear encrinites have 
been losing ground. One haul of the dredge off the North of 
Scotland brought up from the depth of 500 fathoms upwards of 
40 specimens of vitreous sponges, some new, and which may 
be supposed to represent the Cretaceous Ventriculites. 
From the comparison which has been made it will be seen 
that the general analogy between the deposits going on beneath 
the Atlantic at this time and the true chalk is in some respects 
very striking, hut if attention is paid to accompanying circum¬ 
stances that analogy is materially lessened. Much more is 
required before, without hesitation, the identity of the two can 
he accepted. The lower organisms (in which their similarity 
is mainly found) can exist under numerous and most varied 
conditions; their presence therefore is of no great geological 
importance, and can afford no exact indication of the cir¬ 
cumstances at the period of their existence. Remains of 
Foraminifera have been found in Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and 
Cainozoic formations. In the oldest stratified rocks, viz., the 
Laurentian rocks of Canada, there exist the remains of that 
gigantic Foraminifer, the Eozoon Canadense. In the Silurian 
rocks remains of Foraminifera are met with, some apparently 
identical with existing forms. In the Carboniferous rocks of 
Russia whole beds are composed of a Fusulina. While in 
the secondary and tertiary formations these minute organisms 
attain their maximum development and distribution. And 
taking the group separately, there are no grounds for the 
assertion that the complete forms have superseded other and 
simpler forms. The earliest known types are as perfect as any 
which came after, and there are forms living at the present 
time more simple, or at least as simple in structure, probably as 
any of those which have existed at the earliest periods. 
A Palaeontologist, before he accepted as a fact the continuity of 
the chalk and Atlantic beds, would require the evidence of 
stratigraphical position to be corroborated by higher forms of 
life than the Protozoa, more particularly when he finds that 
