﻿P>'o/. Liversidge — Chalk in New Britain. 533 



probable, from the position of the bed of chalk, that there may have 

 been a hot spring at the spot occupied by it. 



'' That there were some peculiar circumstances distinguishing this 

 from other parts of the reef, is evident. 



" This, if a true conclusion, is to be taken, however, only as one 

 method by which chalk may be made. For there is no reason to 

 suppose that the chalk of the chalk formation has been subjected to 

 heat. On the contrary, it is now well ascertained that it is of cold- 

 water origin, even to its flints, and that it is made up largely of minute 

 Foraminifera, the shells of Ehizopods. 



" Professor Bailey found under his microscope no traces of Forami- 

 nifera, or of anything distinctly organic, in the chalk." 



The entire absence of any remains of Foraminifera must, I venture 

 to think, completely destroy any claim for the Oahu limestone to be 

 regarded as chalk proper. Neither can the Atlantic ooze, rich though, 

 it be in coccoliths and the shells of Foraminifera, be regarded as chalk. 

 It is true that it may in future geological ages fulfil Prof. Sir C. Wy ville 

 Thomson's prediction and become such, but even of that we cannot be 

 certain. At present it is a soft calcareous mud, and a very impure one. 

 When consolidated and converted into dry land, instead of forming a 

 brilliant white chalk limestone, a hard compact argillaceous or siliceous 

 slaty limestone may be the result. The true white chalk so familiar 

 to Englishmen is found over an area extending from the southern part 

 of Sweden to Bordeaux, a distance in round numbers of 850 miles, 

 and again from the northern part of Ireland to the Crimea, i.e. about 

 1140 miles. I am, of course, referring to the extent merely of the 

 soft white limestone known emphatically as chalk, not to the areas 

 occupied by that great variety of rocks which are classed with the 

 chalk, and which are collectively known as the rocks of the Chalk 

 or Cretaceous period, from the fact that they contain certain fossils in 

 common. 



Rocks belonging to the Chalk or Cretaceous period have a very wide 

 distribution, being found in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and in 

 Australia from Western Australia to Queensland, and New Zealand. 

 It may, perhaps, be mentioned as an argament in favour of the 

 probability of the New Ireland limestone beiag properly regarded as of 

 Cretaceous age, that we have Cretaceous rocks in Queensland as far 

 north as 11° S., and in New Guinea, still nearer to New Ireland, we 

 have rocks which undoubtedly belong to the Mesozoic or Secondary 

 period, for amongst the geological specimens brought by Signer 

 D'Albertis from the Fly River, and submitted to me for examination, 

 there were Belemnites, an Ammonite (this Ammonite bears a very close 

 resemblance to a Liassic form), and other fossils, such as teeth of Carcha- 

 rodon and shells of Pecten, all of which may or may not belong to the 

 Cretaceous age. It would be by no means a startling thing to find that these 

 Secondary beds had an extension to the New Britain group of islands, 

 a distance of only a few hundred miles, which would comprise an area 

 by no means equal to the extent of country occupied in Europe by the 

 typical white chalk. It should, however, be mentioned that no true 

 white chalk has yet been found either in Queensland or in New Guinea. 

 In conclusion, it may be stated that the principal reasons in 



