The Chairman then called upon Mr. F. Milner to read his paper on “The origin of Chalk as shown by the microscope”.

Mr. Milner, after describing the extent & thickness of the chalk deposit pointed out its relationship to other formations & mentioned many of the larger fossils in it. Chalk is essentially Carbonate of Lime & for the most part consists of the fossil shells of minute animals known as Foraminifera. At the present time a vast bed of chalk is being formed by these tiny creatures at the bottom of the Atlantic; the mud brought up by the sounding lead being found by the microscope to be composed chiefly of the shells of two or three species of these interesting organisms associated with the remains of others (Coccosphere) of still simpler structure; these remains are easily identical with those found in the older chalk proving that the two deposits have a similar origin & that in all probability one is a continuation of the other.