Excerpt from The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1860: Zoology, Botany, and Geology I. - Observations on the Distribution and Habits of the Pelagic and Freshwater Free-floating Diatomace . By Surgeon G. C. Wallich, M. D., Retired List, H. M. Indian Forces. There are three important points connected with the natural history of the Diatomace upon which the information hitherto recorded appears both scanty and unsatisfactory. These are - The laws whereby the bathymetrical range of these organisms, in their living state, is determined; The conditions under which their silicious remains are deposited and form vast sedimentary strata; And, lastly, the extent and nature of their locomotive powers. In the 'Sypsis of British Diatomace ' (vol. i. Introd. p. xiii.) their distribution and habits are thus described: - Their living masses present themselves as coloured fringes attached to larger plants, or forming a covering to stones or rocks in cushion-like tufts, or spread over the surface as delicate velvet, or depositing themselves in a filmy stratum on the sand, or intermixed with the scum of living or decayed vegetation floating on the surface of the water. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.