ANNUAL ADDRESS, MDCCCLXXIII. 47 



might find the amorphous and subcrystalline portions of 

 the mountain limestone without evidences of life, but I 

 am bound to admit that on having sections of it made I 

 was amazed at the amount of foraminiferous life it dis- 

 closes. These sections, which I have had prepared by 

 Messrs. R. & J. Beck, of London, and by Mr. Dancer, of 

 Manchester, are of great interest and go far to confirm all 

 that Professor Ramsay, Dr. Carpenter, and Professor 

 Bischoff have said ; but there are parts in the mountain 

 limestone sections devoid of life forms, whilst some of those 

 from liassic and other limestones appear to be entirely un- 

 fossiliferous. You will see in the liassic one under the 

 miscroscope that it is but very sparsely populated with life 

 remains, but has its bulk made up of limestone of a less 

 pure kind than the carboniferous. Some of the beds in 

 both formations are very earthy, some very carbonaceous, 

 some very sandy : and I hope I may not be considered 

 presumptuous if am tempted to ask if there is no other 

 than life agency able to separate limestone from the sea 

 water. 



We know that the great travertine or tufaceous de- 

 posits are the results of the voluntary separation of car- 

 bonate of lime from water which held it in solution. 

 We know that in our kettles and steam boilers thick 

 deposits of the same substance are gradually formed, but 

 we also know that such separation is the result of the 

 expulsion by heat or otherwise of the excess of carbonic 

 acid which held it in solution. There are numerous in- 

 stances of calcareous deposits in lakes, rivers, and seas. 

 For example, in the river Lathkill, in Derbyshire : its 

 bed is covered with deposited carbonate of lime, and here 

 is a specimen of moss entirely encrusted and hidden by 

 it, from the same locality. There is a deposit in the 



