'Prof Liversidge — Chalk in New B ritain. 
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 
raethod 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 Rhizopods. 
“ Professor Bailey found under his microseope 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. Seither can the Atlantic ooze, rieh though 
it be in coccoliths and the shells of Foraminifera, be regarded as chalk. 
It is true that it may in future geological ages fultil Prof. Sir C. Wyville 
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 familiär 
to Englishmen is found over an area extending from the Southern part 
of Sweden to Bordeaux, a distanee 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 argument in favour of the 
probability of the New Ireland limestone being 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 Signor 
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 bebynomeansastartlingthingto find that these 
Secondary beds had an extension to the New Britain group of islands, 
a distanee 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 
