Chalk
a soft white rock or earth. Chemically considered chalk is a carbonate of lime. It is formed under water by the accumulation and disintegration of tiny shells of myriads of microscopic animals. If waters are undisturbed for ages these deposits of chalk obtain great thickness, when changes in the earth's surface may bring them above the ocean to form part of a continent. The geologic period during which the great chalk beds were laid down is called the Cretaceous Age. Deep sea dredgings show that a fine white ooze is being formed now at the bottom of the ocean in a way probably very similar to that in which chalk was formed. Chalk formations usually contain fossils of seaweeds, sponges, corals, mollusks, fishes, and reptiles.
One notable chalk deposit may be followed from Austin, Texas, southwestward into Mexico. One ledge, no less than 600 feet in thickness, may be traced for 250 miles. The best known chalk formation reaches from northern France into the southern parts of England and Ireland. Chalk cliffs border both shores of the English Channel. The high, white cliffs of Ireland, with their green carpet above, are the first land that greets the eye of the American bound for Liverpool.
Chalk lacks the fertility of lime, but is used in England to dress fields deficient in the latter. It holds water well, making an excellent subsoil. It is much used in making cement, in sizing some kinds of cloth, and small quantities are molded into cylinders or crayons for blackboard use. The whiting used by the calciminer is a refined chalk. The so-called red chalk, the "keel" found by boys in clay banks, is a kind of clay stained with iron. In medicine purified chalk is administered as a remedy for an acid stomach. Such expressions as "chalk up," "by a long chalk," etc., arise from the use of chalk in keeping accounts.