ae 
On the BecutteticE of Chalk in the New Britain 
By Arcuinatp Liverstpe@r, Professor of SeOney and 
Mineralogy in the University of Sydney 
[ Read before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 4 July, 1877.] 
e specimen which I now pee e the ‘sas to lay before you is 
not Pails interesting in itself as an example of what is known as 
an Sol. nebo forme rock, since it is built up almost entirely of 
calcareous skeletal remains of organic forms, but it is inter- 
Tenors east eats) certain grotesque figures of men and 
animals, which had been carved by the natives of the above 
islands out of a soft white somewhat pulverulent material, 
having much the appearance of plaster of Paris or chalk. 
Some of these figures were deposited in the Museum, and a 
fragment broken off from one of them was placed in 
for identification. 
On examination, the remains of numerous foraminifera are at 
once detected, the ‘forms of the larger ones being plainly visible 
even to the unaided eye; under the microscope the mass 
of the rock is seen to be almost entirely composed of the shells 
and fragments of shells ve foraminifera, the remains of globige- 
rina being most abundan 
To obtain the shells a the foraminifera free from the cement- 
surface specimen with a soft tooth er 
a stream of water, when the whole surface of the ent 
submitted to the operation dily becomes studded with the 
speedily 
minute shells and fragments of shells of foraminifera, now left 
gg out in relie 
To obtain the foraminifera perfectly free from the acco mpany- 
ing mde it is sufficient to dry the collected debris and to place it 
