By far the most important of the chemically-formed rocks are the so-called Calcareous Rocks (Lat. calx, lime), comprising all those which contain a large proportion of carbonate of lime, or are wholly composed of this substance.  Carbonate of lime is soluble in water holding a certain amount of carbonic acid gas in solution; and it is, therefore, found in larger or smaller quantity dissolved in all natural waters, both fresh and salt, since these waters are always to some extent charged with the above-mentioned solvent gas.  A great number of aquatic animals, however, together with some aquatic plants, are endowed with the power of separating the lime thus held in solution in the water, and of reducing it again to its solid condition.  In this way shell-fish, crustaceans, sea-urchins, corals, and an immense number of other animals, are enabled to construct their skeletons; whilst some plants form hard structures within their tissues in a precisely similar manner.  We do meet with some calcareous deposits, such as the “stalactites” and “stalagmites” of caves, the “calcareous tufa” and “travertine” of some hot springs, and the spongy calcareous deposits of so-called “petrifying springs,” which are purely chemical in their origin, and owe nothing to the operation of living beings.  Such deposits are formed simply by the precipitation of carbonate of lime from water, in consequence of the evaporation from the water of the carbonic acid gas which formerly held the lime in solution; but, though sometimes forming masses of considerable thickness and of geological importance, they do not concern us here.  Almost all the limestones which occur in the series of the stratified rocks are, primarily at any rate, of organic origin, and have been, directly or indirectly, produced by the action of certain lime-making animals or plants, or both combined.  The presumption as to all the calcareous rocks, which cannot be clearly shown to have been otherwise produced, is that they are thus organically formed; and in many cases this presumption can be readily reduced to a certainty.  There are many varieties of the calcareous rocks, but the following are those which are of the greatest importance:—­

Chalk is a calcareous rock of a generally soft and pulverulent texture, and with an earthy fracture.  It varies in its purity, being sometimes almost wholly composed of carbonate of lime, and at other times more or less intermixed with foreign matter.  Though usually soft and readily reducible to powder, chalk is occasionally, as in the north of Ireland, tolerably hard and compact; but it never assumes the crystalline aspect and stony density of limestone, except it be in immediate contact with some mass of igneous rock.  By means of the microscope, the true nature and mode of formation of chalk can be determined with the greatest ease.  In the case of the harder varieties, the examination can be conducted by means of slices ground down to a thinness sufficient