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 CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 GEORGE H. E. ULRICH, E.G.S. 
 
 
 
 MELBOURNE: 
 
 BY AUTHORITY: JOHN FETCHES, GOVERNMENT PRINTER. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 MINEKALOGY OF VICTOKIA. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEOEGE H. E. ULRICH, E.G.S, 
 
 
 Melbourne'. 
 
 BY AUTHORITY: JOHN FERRES, GOVERNMENT PRINTER. 
 187O. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO 
 
 THE MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA 
 
 IT has frequently been noticed by persons acquainted with other mining countries that 
 our colony, though well-explored and studded with well-developed mines, is very poor 
 in minerals, both as regards variety and beauty of crystallized specimens. We can cer- 
 tainly not complain of the quantity and intrinsic value of the principal minerals we 
 possess, considering that our quartz reefs and tertiary drifts furnish the most valuable 
 of metals in greatest abundance (an authority like Sir Roderick Murchison proving 
 Victoria to be the richest gold-mining country in the world see "Siluria," 4th edition) 
 and that the most precious of gem-stones diamond and ruby have already been dis- 
 covered, and the number of new varieties of other known species is steadily on the 
 increase. Victoria has indeed received, so to speak, the very essence of mineral riches ; 
 yet, in looking, for instance, at the inconsiderable number of different mineral species 
 about twenty hitherto recognized in the hundreds of auriferous lodes opened through- 
 out the country, and comparing this result with the many dozens of fine minerals occur- 
 ring in the ore-lodes of Cornwall, Saxony, the Hartz, &c., the reward for mineralogical 
 research appears rather a meagre one, and any new discovery is therefore the more 
 eagerly welcomed and deserving of record. 
 
 Finding some pleasure in the study of this branch of science, I gave, in the geolo- 
 gical essay prepared for the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1867, a condensed description of 
 the mineral species up to that time found in Victoria ; and as a number of new finds 
 and facts have come under my notice since that publication, it might prove both of 
 scientific and general interest if I record progress in the following pages. Not only have 
 species quite new to Victoria to be noticed, but also several quite new to science, and of 
 those already known, new localities, new interesting forms of occurrence, &c., deserve 
 mention. My enumeration, I am conscious however, will even fall short of the mark, 
 for, through the untiring energy of the Secretary for Mines, Mr. Brough Smyth, in 
 securing the saving, transmission, and examination of specimens from all parts of the 
 colony, the list of new species and varieties is nearly daily augmented. 
 
 Having myself no laboratory at command, I am specially indebted to my friend 
 Mr. Cosmo Newbery for his assistance in furnishing me with the chemical analyses of a 
 number of the species described. 
 
 For crystallographers I have drawn correct figures of some of our interesting crystal 
 rarities, and given in the context accurate measurements of angles for the determination 
 of the indices of the planes of some of the new crystals. 
 
 As regards the arrangement of the species in the description, no system has been 
 followed, except that of grouping together the native metals and metallic minerals the 
 hydrous and anhydrous oxides the salts of special acida gemstones silicates 
 sulphates, and carbonates. 
 
CONTEIBUTION8 TO THE 
 
 OK BISMTJTHIC GOLD. 
 
 Some time ago my attention was directed by Mr. Salter, the manager of the Alliance 
 Company, Nuggety Reef, Maldon, to small irregular specks of a rare gold-ore that occurs 
 associated with gold, generally in the neighborhood of, and sometimes several inches deep 
 in, the granite veins that traverse this interesting reef. The miners call this ore " black 
 gold," on account of the mostly dark -looking specks producing globules of bright gold by 
 the usual burning or roasting of the quartz. Of the small quantity a few implanted 
 specks available for examination. I was only able to make some blowpipe experiments ; 
 but these were sufficient to prove the ore to be an alloy of bismuth and gold. It fuses 
 very easily on charcoal, and whilst imparting to the latter the characteristic yellow 
 coating of bismuth, turns gradually to a bright gold bead. Sulphur, tellurium, &c., 
 which, from analogy, I supposed to be present in the ore, are entirely absent. From a 
 number of specimens, lately received through the kindness of Mr. Salter, another small 
 quantity of the ore was obtained that sufficed Mr. Cosmo Newbery for a qualitative 
 analysis and an assay of hardly half a grain. The former of these confirmed my blowpipe 
 deter mination, and the latter proved the composition of the ore to be Au 64-5, Bi 3 5- 5, 
 conforming closely to the chemical formula Au 2 Bi. Other characteristics of the mineral 
 are: hardness, r 5-2*0; malleable ; very sectile ; very bright metallic lustre and pinkish 
 silver- white color when freshly broken, but tarnishing gradually on exposure, first to a 
 dull copper color, and ultimately to black. Crystals have not been observed as yet ; 
 cleavage apparently cubical. Two trials to determine its specific gravity, made with two 
 specks weighing considerably less than one grain each, produced, singularly enough, the 
 one only 8 -2, the other 97, though, according to the above composition of thp ore, it 
 should have been considerably higher. In order to find the reason of this discrepancy, 
 the two test-samples were dissolved in aqua regia, when it was discovered that each 
 contained inside a fine skeleton of an earthy mineral, resembling felspar under the 
 microscope, though no trace of this could be detected previous to the trials. This ore, as 
 a natural product, is quite new to science the bismuthaurite described by Shepard being 
 a furnace product and it is therefore proposed to name it " Maldonite," after the 
 locality of occurrence. Mr. Salter states that it was formerly found in the upper 
 workings of the Alliance Company's mine in greater quantity and in larger pieces, and 
 it is therefore not improbable that it might also occur in a similar manner in the neigh- 
 boring ground of the Speculation Company, perhaps in crystallized pieces, and affording 
 sufficient material for a quantitative analysis. It was no doubt the source of the former 
 frequent admixtures of bismuth in the gold from the Nuggety Reef. 
 
 TETR^JEJEDRITIE. 
 
 On examining several fine gold-quartz specimens from the Albion Company's 
 mine, Steiglitz, kindly shown to me by Mr. Davidson, of Geelong, I discovered bright, 
 grey metallic specks, and in a hollow of the quartz also a perfect tetrahedral crystal 
 of an ore, that, before the blowpipe on charcoal and in the glass tube, proved to 
 be Tetrahedrite, giving reactions for S, Sb, As, Cu, Fe, and Zn, and which may also 
 contain Ag. 
 
 This ore is quite new to Victoria. It is associated with gold, iron pyrites, stibnite, 
 and, though rarely, bournonite. On breaking one of the specimens, 
 several smaller crystals were afterwards discovered in hollows of 
 the quartz, coated by pholerite. They show a fine iridescent 
 tarnish and brilliant lustre, and are very rich in planes. The 
 solitary perfect crystal, of which a drawing (Fig. i) is annexed, 
 exhibits those of the cube h, octahedron o, rhombic-dodecahedron 
 d, trapezohedron t, and of the rather rare hexakisoctahedron m. 
 FIG. i. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 This ore has been known since several years to occur very rarely in some quartz 
 reefs of Ballarat, St. Arnaud, and Heathcote ; we can now, however, add to these another 
 locality, viz., the Albion Reef, Steiglitz, in which it is apparently found in some abundance. 
 This is shown by two lots of specimens from the Albion Company's mine received at the 
 former Geological Survey Office for examination one sent by the mining surveyor, the 
 other by the manager of the mine. The ore occurs more or less thickly dispersed through 
 the quartz in small patches, crystalline grains, and minute crystals, which latter are 
 generally coated by pholerite. A crystal nearly perfect at both ends, though only i lines 
 
 in length, was found in a small hollow, _ ^ 
 
 and shows the form given in Figs. 2 a 
 and b. The mineral is associated with 
 gold, light-brown zinc blende, iron pyrites, 
 tufts of acicular crystals of stibnite, and 
 rarely tetrahedrite, from which latter, if 
 not crystallized, it can hardly be distin- 
 guished by outward appearance ; however 
 its behaviour before the blowpipe on char- 
 coal demonstrates clearly the presence in 
 it of lead, which is absent in the other, and 
 thus affords an easy mode of recognition. 
 
 FIG. 2 a. 
 
 FIG. 2 b. 
 
 BISMUTH, BISMUTH -GO^ANCE, 
 BISMUTHITE. 
 
 These three minerals, of which the second is rather rare and quite new to the colony, 
 were lately discovered in a quartz reef at Linton, Ballarat district. Mr. C. Newbery first 
 examined and analyzed specimens, and made their composition known in the Ballarat 
 Star. On the specimens from the reef that came under my notice, I found native 
 Bismuth and Bismuth-glance associated with gold, and iron and copper pyrites. The first 
 formed small irregular specks, the Bismuth- glance scaly and slender prismatic crystals of 
 fibrous or foliated structure, and showing an iridescent tarnish some very similar in 
 appearance to sulphide of antimony. The Bismuthite appears to be rather scarce, and 
 may also, on account of its greyish color and earthy aspect, be easily overlooked. Mr. 
 Newbery discovered it only after pounding some quantity of the reef-stone. A fine 
 sample of this mineral was lately presented to me by Mr. Ed. Dunn, an ardent collector 
 of mineral specimens, and discoverer besides this of many other interesting novelties in 
 this line in the Beechworth district. It occurs in the gold- drift near Beechworth, in 
 roundish nodular grains of greyish or yellowish- white color ; in fact, it is in all respects 
 similar to that I discovered several years ago in the washdirt of Kamshorn gully, Sandy 
 Creek, Tarrangower. Mr. Dunn found pieces up to half an ounce in weight with a centre 
 of metallic bismuth, and also in the same deposit small pieces of native Bismuth, one with 
 angular fragments of quartz attached : all which occurrences lead to the conclusion that 
 the carbonate is a product of chemical change of the native metal, and that the latter, 
 or perhaps both minerals, have originally been derived from a quartz reef in the neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 COIPIPEU. 
 
 This metal has been found at three new localities : 
 
 i. At Clunes, in the older pliocene gold-drift of the Clunes Company, in small 
 specks and nuggety water-worn pieces, evidently like the gold derived from 
 some lode hidden beneath the basaltic lava that occupies a vast surface area 
 of that district. 
 
CONTBIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 2. In the ground of the Rodney Gold Mining Company, between Ballarat and 
 
 Creswick, at a depth of 185 feet from the surface in the reef drive, 35 feet 
 beneath the gold-drift. It occurs in the line of contact of alternating beds 
 of bluish soft slate and sandstone, but attached to the former, in filiform 
 and arborescent shapes a mode of occurrence very similar to that I 
 described from Wilson's Reef, St. Arnaud. 
 
 3. In the prospecting drives of the Flying Scud Gold Mining Company, Egerton, 
 
 in a manner quite similar to that just mentioned. 
 
 (STJUIPJIIDIE OF 
 
 To judge from the numerous new discoveries of this ore since the last two years, it 
 no doubt ranks next to arsenical and iron pyrites as the most frequent companion of gold 
 in our quartz reefs, though it occurs also in separate veins not associated with auriferous 
 quartz. The upper silurian rocks are however, as far as experience goes, richer in the 
 ore than the lower silurian. Its market value having since some time considerably risen, 
 the working of the separate veins and patches, or the saving of the ore occurring in 
 auriferous quartz reefs, which goes on concurrently with that of the gold, has now 
 become a source of considerable income to small parties of miners and several mining 
 companies, especially in the Heathcote Mining District. 
 
 As the more important amongst the new discoveries, have to be mentioned strong 
 veins of the ore at Munster Gully (Dunolly) ; Donovan's Creek ; Upper Yarra ; Yea, and 
 Sunbury ; and detailed descriptions of the latter, as also of the veins of Costerfield 
 (Heathcote district), by Mr. Th. Couchman, are given in Mr. Brough Smyth's work, The 
 Goldfields and Mineral Districts of Victoria. 
 
 A discovery of later date are two strong veins of the ore not associated with 
 auriferous quartz at Ringwood, about fifteen miles from Melbourne on the road to 
 Lillydale. From inspection I can state about these as follows : The first and largest 
 vein discovered by accident through the breaking of road metal from the top of a rise, 
 a few chains west of the road is from 2 to 4. feet wide, strikes N. 7 W., and dips 
 westerly at angles varying between 60 and 70 these data being the means in the line 
 of the workings, which have an extent of about two chains. In its special behaviour the 
 vein, like its congeners all over the world, is very uncertain and irregular, i.e., especially 
 liable to turn and form patches, which are, however, always connected by a strong 
 ferruginous casing or mullocky band, carrying antimonial ochre in veins, and finely 
 disseminated. At the bottom of one of the shafts, 31 feet deep, it strikes, for instance, 
 N. 7 E., and dips at the shaft 65 west, some 10 feet farther south 70 W., whilst its 
 thickness of nearly 4 feet of solid ore, some distance up the shaft, has dwindled down to 
 a few inches the walls of the lode, from i\ to 3 feet apart, being filled up with mullock, 
 enclosing, besides the narrow vein, nodular pieces of the ore, and antimonial ochre in thin 
 strings and small patches. A few thin leaders of ore join here the main vein from the 
 east. 
 
 The second vein, discovered by Mr. Finnic, crosses the Melbourne road at an oblique 
 angle about three and a half chains distant from the workings on the former vein, the 
 southern continuation of which it ought to intersect close to the road. It strikes in the 
 workings on north side of road N. 30 E , on south side N. 35 E., and dips easterly at 
 angles varying from 60 to 70. As far as at present opened, by a trench and a short 
 drive in a shallow shaft, it is from i to 2 feet thick, and appears to be even more irregular 
 in its behaviour than the first vein, having as yet only furnished its orey product from 
 small disconnected strings, and as a number of lumps some from close to the surface ; 
 the remaining portion of it consisting of ferruginous mullock, rich in antimonial ochre. 
 
 Both veins traverse thick-bedded, yellow, in places highly ferruginous, upper silurian 
 sandstone, which strikes N. 20 E., and dips easterly at an angle of 64. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 7 
 
 Speaking generally about Stibnite, it is a singular feature, considering the more and 
 more proved abundance of the ore, and in comparison to other mining countries, that 
 crystallized specimens are as scarce as ever. As new in this respe*ct, I can only mention 
 that groups of small acicular crystals have been observed at Costerfield as a great 
 rarity partly in hollows within the mass of the ore, partly on the faces of joints in the 
 walls of the lode. 
 
 MIO3LYBDENITE. 
 
 Of this mineral four new places of occurrence have to be mentioned, viz. : Yea, the 
 Bradford Lead and Nuggety Range (Maldon), and Mount Moliagul. At Yea, it is found 
 in a coarsely crystalline variety of granite, agreeing, as regards composition, with that 
 called " greisen " in Germany a mixture of only mica and quartz, felspar being absent. 
 More or less regular hexagonal plates of the ore, some nearly i inch in diameter, are in 
 great abundance irregularly distributed through this rock, and, curiously enough, in 
 such a manner that they generally lie between the mica partings of the quartz fragments, 
 and are seldom embedded by themselves in the solid quartz. 
 
 At the Bradford Lead, Maldon, the mineral occurs very sparingly; but the specimens 
 hitherto found are rather interesting, consisting of pebbles and crystals of cairngorm and 
 rock crystal, in which spangles and small hexagonal plates of Molybdenite lie embedded 
 an occurrence rarely recorded. 
 
 In the Nuggety Range (top of high hill above the Maldon Cemetery) it was lately 
 found, by Mr. Rule, dispersed through a quartz vein traversing granite. It occurs in 
 hexagonal plates, up to half an inch in diameter, and is associated with orthoclase, schorl, 
 mica, and wolfram. Fine druses of rock crystal and cairngorm are also not rare in the vein. 
 
 The fourth new discovery of Molybdenite was made a short time ago, in a quartz 
 reef running across the slope of Mount Moliagul. It occurs in small plates disseminated 
 through the quartz, and forms also drusy accumulations of imperfect scaly crystals in 
 open joints of the reef. It has apparently undergone much decomposition, as the faces 
 of the joints in the reef are mostly covered with narrow slits and hollows partly empty, 
 partly filled with fine quartz sand and clay that evidently have originated through the 
 removal of Molybdenite crystals. The joints of the quartz are, as a further evidence of 
 the decomposition of the ore, coated with 
 
 MOILYBDIC OCHEE. 
 
 A mineral new to Victoria. It forms small light-yellow tufts and nobs, which, by 
 aid of the magnifying glass, prove to be composed of a dense accumulation of fine, silky, 
 radiating needles, not unlike the manner in which malachite is often found, lliis mode 
 of occurrence of the mineral in capillary crystallizations appears to be very rare. In 
 Nicol's, Brooke and Miller's, and other mineralogies consulted, it is described as a yellow, 
 earthy substance or incrustation, and in this latter form it actually occurs, though 
 sparingly, in hollows of molybdenite specimens from Yea. Only in the new edition of 
 Dana's Mineralogy, 1868, it is mentioned as occurring in the capillary crystalline form. 
 
 OCHIRE). 
 
 This mineral being always associated with the sulphide of antimony (through the 
 decomposition of which it has no doubt arisen) above the permanent water-level of the 
 respective lodes, it is likewise found at all those new localities mentioned for the latter. 
 Though sometimes filling, as a yellow powder, cavities in the sulphide and gangue, it is 
 mostly dense and hard, generally isabella-yellow, sometimes greenish-yellow and yellowish- 
 white, and shows often, especially the crust round nuclei of stibnite, concentric rings 
 
8 CONTEIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 varying in the different shades of color just mentioned. In the veins at Ringwood, it 
 occurs in places in thick, massive, seam-like patches, sometimes with a laminated structure? 
 rendering it hardly distinguishable from the mullocky gangue, occupying portions of the 
 lodes. Dense pieces show frequently a porphyritic aspect, caused by small perfect quartz 
 crystals being more or less thickly distributed through the mass. Specimens with 
 acicular crystallizations, from Costerfield, have come under my notice as great rarities. 
 
 CHROME OCHRE. 
 
 Specimens of this mineral, similar to those occurring at Heathcote and Strathloddon, 
 have been kindly shown to me by Mr. Couchman, Chief Mining Siirveyor, as from the 
 Great Western diggings, Pleasant Creek. It might be described as a rather soapy clay, 
 colored dark pistachio-green by sesquioxide of chromium, which has no doubt resulted 
 from the decomposition of "chromic iron,'' of which black grains, rather friable and devoid 
 of lustre, can be recognized scantily distributed through the clay. 
 
 , .A.SBO3LITE (E-AJRTHY COB^ILT). 
 
 In my former description of Victorian mineral species (Exhibition Essays, 1867) I 
 was obliged, from their hardness and general resemblance, to place under the head of 
 " Psilomelane "the varieties of ferruginous black manganese-ore occurring so abundantly 
 on the goldfields and in other parts of the colony, although the compositions of the 
 specimens analyzed, varied, not only greatly amongst themselves, but differed still more 
 from those recorded for psilomelane from European and other localities. The great amount 
 of oxide of iron contained in the Victorian specimens appeared to be their chief distin- 
 guishing characteristic, and I therefore proposed the name of black ferro-manganese-ore 
 for them. Seeing, however, in the recent edition of Dana's Mineralogy, that ores of a 
 hardness varying from 0*5 to 6, and of the most diversified compositions, are placed 
 under the general head of " Wad " as being no defined mineral species, I think the 
 Victorian specimens formerly analyzed would, with perhaps one exception, which agrees 
 pretty closely with true psilomelane in composition, come under this head also ; whilst an 
 ore of this class since found by Mr. Verdon, at Home Creek, Sloane's Punt, Goulburn 
 River, would belong to the sub-species Asbolite (black Earthy Cobalt), as it contains, 
 according to Mr. Newbery's analysis, 14 per cent, of oxide of cobalt. It occurs in irregular 
 strings and seams of nodular, mammillated masses in the upper silurian shales, and forms 
 also botryoidal coatings on the faces of joints in the beds. 
 
 Mr. Murray, of the former Geological Survey, forwarded some time ago a number of 
 specimens from a quartz reef in the Steiglitz Mining District, which contain a hard, 
 brown, or chocolate-colored opaque mineral, forming thin veins or layers in joints of 
 the quartz. The faces of these layers are irregularly striated, and show a metallic 
 adamantine lustre, and the powdered mineral is of light-yellow color, and proves before 
 the blowpipe and by qualitative analysis, to consist of pure titanic acid. As there are 
 three minerals known to be composed solely of this acid, viz., rutite, brookite, and anatase, 
 each of distinctive crystalline form, it might, in default of crystals of the mineral 
 under notice, be considered rather hazardous to term it Brookite. In justification of 
 this course I can, however, plead that I have seen in several European mineral col- 
 lections undoubted specimens of Brookite, in all particulars resembling the Steiglitz 
 mineral, none, however, of rutile and anatase that were similar to it 
 
 On some of the specimens places can be noticed, where the brown color of the 
 mineral is changed to greyish-black with quite a metallic lustre, and that afford a greyish- 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 9 
 
 black streak-powder. As these portions also consist of titanic acid, as proved by ex- 
 periment, they would, according to Dana's description, agree with the variety of Brookite 
 occurring in Arkansas and other American States, and named by Sfiepard " Arkansite." 
 Small, thin, plate-like particles of Brookite, in color, striation, lustre, &c., exactly 
 resembling the Steiglitz mineral, occur also in the gold-drift of the Mount Greenock 
 Lead, associated with sapphire, topaz, zircon, &c. 
 
 C-AJSSITERITE ( TIN - ORE ). 
 
 Although this valuable ore has long been known to occur in workable quantity in the 
 state of more or less fine sand, with occasional larger pieces so-called "stream-tin" 
 in the gold-drifts of many of our goldfields, more especially Beechworth, still all 
 research and prospecting to find it in its rock matrix proved unsuccessful till, since last 
 year, three such interesting discoveries were made at the last-named goldfield. The credit 
 for the first, made above ten months ago, belongs to Mr. Ed. Dunn, who systematically 
 traced the stream-tin of a gully situated about five miles S.W. of Beechworth, to have 
 been derived from a peculiar brecciated porphyritic dyke, traversing granite. The dyke 
 stone intensely hard and tough is composed of chalcedonic quartz, felspar crystals, and 
 sometimes mica, and the tin-ore occurs distributed through it in small crystalline grains ; 
 other associated minerals are iron pyrites, and rarely fluor-spar. The dyke varies 
 very much in character and width, and, on account of the hardness of the rock, has as 
 yet not been properly prospected. 
 
 The second discovery was effected by Mr. Hensley, tinsmelter, at a place situated 
 about four miles from Beechworth, in a south-westerly direction ; and Mr. Dunn describes 
 it as made in a strong surface-blow of cellular quartz, containing abundance of white 
 mica in plumose and sometimes stellate aggregations, and lying in a large dyke of eurite, 
 that traverses rather coarse-grained granite. A shaft, sunk by Mr. Dunn's advice at the 
 end of the quartz-blow, disclosed the following : The mass of quartz soon decreased in 
 thickness and split into veins, whilst the stuff surrounding these consisted in places almost 
 entirely of fine mica, but turned gradually to a reddish soft eurite. The quartz veins 
 in this rock appear like lenticular patches, are full of felspar, and where their under- 
 lying faces rest upon the eurite, the tin-ore occurs in small crystals and grains, each 
 one embedded in a felspar crystal. The quartz itself is very cellular, small crystals of 
 it studding the inner walls of the cells, whilst occasional larger cavities are filled with a 
 micacious mud, enveloping drusy pieces and perfect crystals, curiously developed. On 
 account of a hard bar of rock, dipping to the east, having been struck in the bottom of the 
 shaft, the sinking of the latter, as yet but twenty feet' deep, has been suspended at present ; 
 but it ought certainly to be resumed, and the dyke more extensively explored, considering, 
 besides its resemblance to a real lode, the favorable feature of the tin-ore occurring dis- 
 seminated both through the quartz and eurite. 
 
 The third discovery of Tin-ore in rock matrix, which has created some excitement in 
 the district, was likewise made in a very fine-grained (euritic) granite dyke traversing 
 common granite, about three-quarters of a mile N.W. of Beechworth. According to 
 Mr. Dunn, this dyke strikes about N. 1 5 W., and can be traced for a considerable distance 
 on the surface, though it is very irregular in its course, in places disappearing in the 
 granite and suddenly cropping out again. A casing, or other defined line of demarcation 
 between it and the granite is entirely absent ; the texture of the latter simply changes 
 suddenly from coarse to fine-grained, and the mica disappears. Both kinds of rock are 
 traversed by numerous thin (quartz) veins in such a manner as to impart the idea of some 
 strong force having shattered their mass in all directions, the resulting cracks and joints 
 being now represented by the veins. The tin-ore occurs in these veins both in the granite 
 and dyke rock, but principally in the portions traversing the latter, and those appear to 
 be the richest that cross the line of dyke at an oblique angle (N. 53 W.). It sits in small, 
 often highly modified crystals single and compound on thin layers of quartz coating 
 
10 . CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 the walls of the veins, the interspaces being generally occupied by a very soft, scaly, 
 greenish mineral, very much resembling talc, but conforming in its blowpipe reactions 
 most to pyrophyllite. As associated ores though most prevalent in the veins traversing 
 the granite have as yet been observed copper, iron and arsenical pyrites, and black 
 powdery sulphide of copper. About two chains from the prospecting shaft (which is 
 26 feet deep at present), garnets of a reddish-wine yellow color have been found in some 
 abundance. 
 
 Although it is as yet doubtful whether any of the three tin-ore occurrences just 
 described, and of which the last one reminds much of the "netzgange" net-lodes of tin- 
 ore of Altenberg, Saxony will, on further exploration, prove of value, so as to pay working 
 on a large scale, still be the result favorable or otherwise the established fact of this 
 new mode of occurrence of the ore recommends at any rate a systematic examination 
 of all the rich tin-bearing creeks of the district, and especially a sharp look-out for 
 euritic and other dykes traversing the granite and silurian rocks, near the boundary of 
 the latter : for it is highly probable, if not quite certain, that the stream-tin of all these 
 creeks has similar sources as those described, and payable, perhaps rich, ones may be 
 amongst the number. 
 
 ( M^GHSTIETIC HKON-DIRE ). 
 
 Regarding this mineral, it has to be mentioned as new that Mr. Norman Taylor, 
 field geologist, found minute octahedrons of it abundantly distributed through the basalt 
 of a hill near Dr. Baynton's station (Geological Survey \ sheet, 51 S.W.). Bars cut from 
 the rock were observed to possess perfect magnetic polarity. Grains of the mineral of a 
 rusty-brown color, varying in size from dust to that of a pea, occur also abundantly in 
 the drift of gullies running off the basalt of Horse Hill, same neighborhood. 
 
 OF JKOISD. 
 
 Fine specimens of this mineral, of more massive, coarsely-columnar structure than 
 those known from Sandy Creek, Maldon, have lately been found in a quartz reef near 
 Ballarat. Hollows in the quartz show sometimes crystals of it that are of a rather per- 
 plexing monoclinic-like development. 
 
 It has also quite recently been discovered by Mr. O. R. Rule in the quartz vein tra- 
 versing granite in the Nuggety Range, Maldon, mentioned under molybdenite. It occurs 
 in small tabular aqcl columnar pieces embedded in quartz, associated with scheelite, 
 molybdenite, schorl, felspar, &c. 
 
 SCHEELITE ( TTJNOST^LTE OE LIME). 
 
 This mineral quite new to Victoria has been found at two different localities in 
 the Maldon district. Our Public Museum collection of colonial minerals possesses one 
 rather imperfect crystal, one-sixth inch in diameter, representing a somewhat com- 
 pressed tetragonal octahedron. This crystal was quite by accident discovered by Mr. 
 Newbery in a broken crystal of smoky quartz from the Bradford Lead. Though in color 
 quite similar to the matrix, its faint outline, somewhat higher lustre on one exposed face, 
 and being scratched by a knife, attracted attention, and on the quartz crystal being 
 carefully broken, that of Scheelite was obtained. A small portion broken off during this 
 operation served for determining its composition as tungstate of lime. The mineral is no 
 doubt rare at the place, and may also, on account of its very close resemblance to its 
 matrix smoky quartz be easily overlooked. Careful examination of a great number of 
 similar quartz crystals and pebbles from the lead failed to disclose another specimen. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 11 
 
 The second locality where this mineral occurs is in the quartz reef in the Nuggety 
 Kange above mentioned. I identified it in a specimen kindly shown me by the discoverer, 
 Mr. Rule which contains it implanted in quartz in crystalline grains, and as one rather 
 imperfect crystal of a quarter inch in diameter, closely associated with rather decomposed- 
 looking wolfram a feature affording a clue to its origin. 
 
 Considering that the drainage from the Nuggety Range, on which the above quartz 
 reef occurs, is direct into the valley of the Bradford Lead, and that there is evidence of 
 a formerly existing drift branch of same age as that of the lead, viz., older pliocene 
 leading from the range into the lead having been removed by denudation, it is not at 
 all improbable that those drift pebbles and crystals, enclosing molybdenite and scheelite, 
 occurring in the lower portion of 4 the lead, have originally been derived from this quartz 
 reef. 
 
 CPHOSIPH^TE OF IRON). 
 
 The earthy variety of this mineral blue iron earth has long been known from 
 the basalt of Ballarat, from Point Addis, Geelong, and from several of the guano islands 
 of Bass's Straits ; but in a finely crystallized state it has only come under notice above 
 two years ago, when Mr. W. Jahn, mining surveyor, sent specimens for determination to 
 the Geological Survey Office, which he found in a soft, yellow, silurian sandstone from a 
 digger's shaft on the Nicholson River, near Sarsfield, Gippsland. The mineral is of a 
 light to dark sky-blue color, translucent bottle-green, but seems to become somewhat 
 opaque on exposure to light. The specimens forwarded by Mr. Jahn, 
 of which the best are now in the collection of our National Museum, 
 show it to occur in veins from the size of a thread to about half an 
 inch in width, also as crystals from one-eighth to above one inch in 
 length, in cracks or open joints of the sandstone. The form of 
 these crystals, shown in Fig. 3, is the common one observed on 
 vivianite from Bodenmais and other places, the plane marked P being 
 that, parallel to which a very perfect mica-like cleavage exists, whilst 
 planes M and Z indicate this cleavage by longitudinal striae. All 
 the specimens show, associated with the Vivianite and in places 
 covering it, small dull-yellow to dark greyish-brown wart-like nobs that consist of 
 carbonate of iron sphcerosiderite and may perhaps be products of decomposition of the 
 Vivianite. 
 
 During the recent arrangement of the collection of colonial minerals at the National 
 Museum, two specimens of Vivianite were noticed that, as regards size and perfection 
 of the crystals, especially on one specimen, are hardly surpassed by any I have seen 
 in European mineral collections. These specimens taken to be oblique green mica, to 
 which they have indeed great resemblance have been presented to the museum by Mr. 
 H. Stone, mining surveyor, who obtained them, according to the Mining Statistics of 
 December 1860 (prepared by Mr. R. Brough Smyth, Secretary for Mines), on the Buckland 
 River, in the cutting for a water-race. The largest of the crystals is about one inch and 
 a half in length and three-quarters inch thick, and is represented 
 in Fig. 4 ; it shows, in addition to the same prismatic planes of 
 the Gippsland crystal, two pairs of rare terminal ones, which re- 
 quire to be measured. The color of the crystals is a deep bluish- 
 green seen perpendicularly to the cleavage plane, and impure blue 
 in any other direction. It is a singular fact that these specimens 
 of Vivianite are, like the Gippsland ones, also associated with 
 small nobs of sphcerosiderite, and that they occur in a similar soft, 
 yellow sandstone. Indeed the resemblance of the specimens from 
 both localities is so close that anyone unacquainted with the facts 
 would unhesitatingly pronounce them as coming from the same place. 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 PHOSPHORITE. 
 
 On examining a reddish-brown basaltic clay (decomposed older basalt) from Bruthen 
 Creek, Gippsland, it was found to contain nodular concretions of a whitish mineral 
 substance, colored in places by blue and green carbonate of copper, and that proved to 
 be a rather impure Phosphorite, according to the following results of a quantitative 
 analysis by Mr. Cosmo Newbery : 
 
 SiO 2 ... ... ... ... 5 6 '39 
 
 Fe 2 O 3 ............... 2-579 
 
 CaO ............... 
 
 P0 5 ............... 
 
 CaO.C0 2 ............... 
 
 100*090 
 
 CaO and P0 5 stand in the proportion to each other to form the tribasic phosphate (apatite). 
 SiO 2 , Fe 2 3 , and CaO.CO 2 may be considered as impurities, as their percentage varies in 
 different samples. Some of the specimens contain a much larger percentage of SiO 2 , 
 which is generally so intimately mixed with the phosphate and carbonate that it cannot 
 be separated by any mechanical process. 
 
 This mineral, hitherto not known in the colony, was discovered by Mr. Norman 
 Taylor, geological surveyor, about two miles north of Lancefield, in lower silurian graptolite 
 shales. It occurs, covering the bedding planes of the shales in the characteristic yellowish 
 or greenish disc-like plates with finely radiated structure, exactly similar to the specimens 
 from Devonshire, Bohemia, Saxony, and other places. In addition to this structural 
 coincidence of the mineral with Wavellite, its identity with it is put beyond a doubt by its 
 behaviour before the blowpipe, and in the moist way, viz., by giving clear evidence of the 
 presence of phosphoric acid and alumina. 
 
 STBTJVITE. 
 
 During a recent exploration of the Skipton caves near Ballarat, Messrs. Etheridge 
 and Murray, geological surveyors, collected samples of the guano that, to a considerable 
 depth perhaps 20 feet or more covers the bottom of the caves, being apparently in a 
 great measure derived from the excrements of thousands of bats which use the caves as 
 hiding places in daytime, when they can be observed hanging in large clusters suspended 
 from the roof. The guano has a rich-brown color, and is full of light-yellow, subtrans- 
 parent, crystalline particles and glistening, perfect crystals of a mineral that experiments 
 prove to be Struvite. Before the blowpipe it imparts to the flame the characteristic bluish- 
 green color of phosphoric acid, and fuses easily to a white enamel, which assumes a fine 
 purple color with solution of cobalt. Heated in the closed tube it becomes white opaque, 
 whilst giving off water and fumes of ammonia. A bluish-green color imparted by it to a 
 soda bead proves the presence of manganese. 
 
 According to a quantitative analysis made by Mr. Edward Pittman, under the 
 direction of Mr. Cosmo Newbery, at the Geological Survey laboratory, its composition 
 is as follows : 
 
 MgO ... ... ... ... 16*57 Magnesia. 
 
 FeO ... ... ... ... o'95 Protoxide of iron. 
 
 MnO ... ... ... ... traces Protoxide of manganese. 
 
 PO 5 ... ... ... 28-81 Phosphoric acid. 
 
 HO-fNH 4 O ... ... ... 54'49 Water and ammonia. 
 
 100-82 
 
 which shows a close agreement with the results of an analysis by Ulex, given in Dana's 
 Mineralogy. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 13 
 
 The main forms of the crystals the largest of which are about three lines in length 
 are shown in Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. They represent quite different modifications from 
 those given in Dana's, Naumann's, and other mineralogies, though, with the exception 
 
 of perhaps one, all the 
 planes appear to have 
 been previously ob- 
 
 served. Crystals 
 of a genuine he- 
 mimorphic type- 
 so characteristic 
 of specimens 
 
 FIG. 7. 
 
 FIG. 5. FIG. 6. FIG. 8. FIG. 9. 
 
 from other localities of the form represented in Fig. 7, are not at all of frequent oc- 
 currence ; the most show only, as it were, a strong tendency towards hemimorphism 
 in the small size or imperfect development of corresponding opposite planes (generally 
 top and bottom). Hemihedral planes are quite rare also, for amongst the great number 
 of crystals examined, there were only a few (Figs. 8 and 9) on which the planes 
 marked s are evidently of this character. 
 
 Measurements of angles around the main zones of a number of good crystals gave 
 closely agreeing results, the mean of which is as follows : 
 
 o = 1 37" 40' 
 
 P ="9 
 m = 90 
 
 = l6l2 ' 
 .0 
 
 P 
 
 m= 151' 
 
 m : p = 151' 
 
 h:t = 121 40 (right) 
 h :t = 1 21 40' (left) 
 t : t over h = 63 20' 
 h': t'= 121 40' 
 p : o over h = 76 40' 
 
 p over h = 58 
 m over h = 29 
 n = 96 36' 
 n' = 83 24' 
 m= 138 12' 
 
 On comparing the angles m : n ; m : p ; m : h; t : t over h ; n : n over m ; p : p over h, 
 with those recorded for the crystal figured in Dana's Mineralogy, a pretty close agreement 
 is found to exist respectively with O : li = 138 25' ; O : 1 = 151 25' ; O : ii = 90 ; 
 12 : 12 over ii = 63 8' ; li : li over O = 96 50' ; $1 : 1 over ii = 57 10' ; and the planes 
 O ; %i ; ii ; iz ; \i, are therefore no doubt identical with m,p y h, t, and n respectively. The 
 plane 1 marked o in the figures of our Victorian crystals is absent in the crystal drawn in 
 Dana's Mineralogy, though it agrees well with a plane marked c on a crystal figured 
 in Naumann's Mineralogy: angle c : c, being there given as 95, whilst I make angle 
 0:0 = 95 20'. Naumann's plane a is no doubt also identical with Dana's 12 and t in my 
 figures, according to angles a : a = 63 7' ; 12 : i = 63 8', and t : t = 63 20'. The hemi- 
 hedral plane s seems to be quite new, and is, as before remarked, very rare : it was, on 
 account of its small size and dullness, not measurable. The manner in which I have 
 placed the crystals upright differs from that adopted in Dana's Mineralogy, where m 
 instead of h is chosen as top-plane, but is, I think, justified by their different mode of 
 development. The nearly symmetrically developed crystal represented in Fig. 6 served 
 me as a guide, and on it plane m, which is generally very small, is entirely absent. 
 With regard to the terminal and basal planes h and h', it has to be mentioned that the 
 former, which is invariably smaller than the other, is generally bright and even, whilst 
 h' is mostly devoid of one or both these properties, and therefore seldom fit for measure- 
 ment. Between the upper pyramidal planes and the corresponding ones below, I 
 observed no marked difference, either in lustre or evenness. 
 
 Accompanying the Struvite there occur also in the guano white earthy nodular 
 patches that have, according to Mr. Newbery's analysis, a similar composition as the 
 former, except that water is absent. Whether they are the result of the decomposition 
 
14 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 of Struvite, or, on the contrary, represent, so to speak, the matrix from which that 
 mineral has been formed, is left uncertain. That the Struvite crystals, on exposure to 
 the atmosphere, become soon coated with a white powdery crust of decomposition, would 
 speak for the former view. 
 
 F:LTJ OR - SIP A.E. 
 
 This mineral has recently, for the first time, been found in Victoria, by Mr. Ed. Dunn, 
 in the brecciated porphyry dyke near Beechworth, that contains, as previously men- 
 tioned, implanted grains of tin-ore. It occurs in small, imperfect, octahedral crystals, 
 short narrow veins, and small patches ; has a dirty amethystine color, and is mostly 
 associated with iron pyrites and chalcedonic quartz. 
 
 , ORIENTAL RUBY. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Bleasdale reported to the Royal Society, some time ago, that a 
 number of grains and imperfect crystals of the true Oriental Ruby of fine color, and 
 several of a size worth cutting, together with larger grains of yellow 
 and green Sapphire {Oriental Topaz, Oriental Emerald}, had been dis- 
 covered somewhere in the neighborhood of Pakenham, near Mr. Henty's 
 station, confirming thus my determination of small grains of the 
 identical varieties of Sapphire from the same district several years ago. 
 He kindly presented to the National Museum one of the Rubies a 
 small but nearly perfect crystal of the form given in Fig. 10 (hexagonal 
 prism with pyramidal planes) that from its fine violet color would 
 by jewellers be called Oriental Amethyst. It resembles the quartz- 
 amethyst indeed very much, but its distinction from the latter is easily 
 proved by its more acute pyramid, far superior hardness (scratching FIG. 10. 
 
 topaz}, and its action upon the dichroscope. It also shows before the blowpipe, on and 
 after strong heating, a behaviour generally recorded for the spinel ruby, but which, by re- 
 peated trials with specimens of the Oriental Ruby, I found to be also characteristic of 
 the latter, viz., that it becomes quite dark opaque, and on cooling turns first green, 
 then colorless, and ultimately resumes its original red color. 
 
 The exact place, mode of occurrence, and matrix of the gem-stones shown by 
 Dr. Bleasdale were not for certain known at the time. A geological excursion 
 through that district since enables us now, however, to state r with some certainty, 
 that the Rubies hitherto shown came from the locale of the Berwick tin-mine, viz., 
 William Wallace's Creek, that drains the ranges north of the Gippsland road, about 
 eighteen miles north-east of the township of Berwick. And it can further be stated that 
 there is every probability of tributaries of this creek, and perhaps independent neigh- 
 boring creeks, containing the gem likewise. The main geological formation of that 
 part of the country, and for a great extent further north and east, consists of granite, 
 that in the rather steep ranges, bounding Wallace's Creek, is of a coarse-grained and 
 highly porphyritic character. The crests of these ranges are, however, in parts covered 
 by an older non or but slightly vesicular dolerite, rich in olivine, that bears a very 
 close resemblance to the older doleritic basalts of Phillip Island and Western Port, 
 with which it was probably contemporaneously erupted, and once stood in connection, 
 and that by its decomposition and consequent production of rich marly soil gives rise 
 to the luxuriant vegetation of those districts. Which of the two rocks, whether granite 
 or basalt, is the matrix of the Ruby, could not definitely be ascertained, but certain cir- 
 cumstances lead to the conclusion that it is very probably the latter. The drift of 
 Wallace's Creek is rich in nodules and pebbles of chalcedonic varieties of quartz, and the 
 miners have observed that wherever colored stones (Ruby, Sapphire, &c.) occur, they 
 are always associated with these chalcedony pebbles ; whilst, on the other hand, none 
 
MI N KK. \LOl3 V OF VICTORIA. 15 
 
 of the former are found, where the latter prove absent. These facts justify the suppo- 
 sition that both minerals have been derived from the same matrix, and that this is the 
 older doleritic basalt, just spoken of, does not admit of much doubt, if we remember its 
 close resemblance to the basalt of Phillip Island and neighborhood, and 1 that the latter is 
 specially rich in chalcedony, which occurs in regular veins, composed of disconnected 
 nodules and geodes. The derivation of the different varieties of Sapphire from the basalt 
 at Wallace's Creek would also well accord with their occurrence in the basaltic rocks 
 of Europe for instance, of the Auvergne, the Rhine, &c. and also with the frequency 
 of the common Sapphire in the gold-drifts of our western goldfields, especially Dayles- 
 ford, Blue Mountain, Ballarat, Ballan, Loddon River, &c , where its being derived from 
 older denuded basalts is generally considered an established fact. With regard to the 
 origin of the fine Sapphires and Rubies found in the drifts of the extensive Beechworth 
 goldfields, it is commonly thought that, as basalt appears to be absent, they come from 
 the granite and other old crystalline rocks abundant in that district. This is, however, 
 also doubtful, for Mr. Selwyn found, in his geological exploration of that part of the 
 country, not only pebbles of dense crystalline basalt dispersed through the drifts of the 
 goldfields, but, in addition, that most of the high ranges from which the Beechworth 
 creeks take their rise are capped by patches of older basalt, thus proving conclusively 
 that extensive denudation of this rock has taken place, and it may therefore here also 
 have been the matrix of the Sapphire. 
 
 Of this gem-stone I have also to report two new localities of occurrence. Two very 
 fine specimens, of light-blue color, and clear one a rounded pebble, the other a rather 
 water- worn crystal of the accompanying form (Fig. n),and of 913*35 
 grains in weight both now in the National Museum were discovered 
 by Mr. Brown's Geological Survey party in the washed pebble-heaps 
 of the Bradford Lead, Maldon. They are both of a size and clearness 
 to be of value to the lapidary, and the larger one is very little inferior 
 to the celebrated blue Topazes found several years ago at Dunolly. 
 
 Mr. Hornsby, of Maldon, possesses a broken quartz-pebble, also 
 from the above lead, that shows embedded a colorless transparen 
 crystal of Topaz, about two lines in length. Though very much 
 resembling it in appearance, it is easily distinguishable from rock 
 crystal by its terminal planes, the oblong form of the prism, and the 
 vertical striation of the prismatic planes. The second new locality 
 for Topaz is the Mount Greenock Lead, near Talbot. I have seen and examined from 
 there small rounded grains up to a pea in size, transparent, colorless, and of light-blue 
 color. Pebbles have, however, been found larger than a walnut unfortunately, however, 
 too much fractured to be of any intrinsic value. An interesting novelty with regard to 
 Topaz was lately communicated to me by Mr. Ed. Dunn, of Beechworth, namely, that he 
 had been shown a rounded piece of the mineral of the size of a large bean that contained 
 a number of small fluid cavities of various sizes, showing gas- or air-bubbles. Remem- 
 bering that Sir David Brewster discovered in Topaz crystals from the Brazils, Scotland, 
 and, as mentioned in Dana's Mineralogy, also from Australia, the two rare fluids 
 brewsterlinite and cryptolinite, it is not at all unlikely that either of the two, or perhaps 
 both, are represented in the specimen seen by Mr. Dunn. That the cavities and bubbles 
 are numerously visible to the naked eye, appears also a rare occurrence, as, according to 
 Dana, they are mostly microscopic. 
 
 The precious variety of this mineral the Almandine hitherto only known from the 
 gold-drift of numerous creeks of the Beechworth goldfields, is reported from creeks of the 
 mountainous country north-east of Berwick. Mr. Norman Taylor found it in the wash- 
 
16 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 dirt of a hole sunk at Hill's corner, near Dr. Baynton's station, at the junction of the 
 Silurian and granite, the latter overlaid by basalt. It generally appears in irregular flat 
 dark pinkish-violet colored grains ; only one small crystal a perfect trapezohedron 
 was observed. He also found grains of similar color and character in the basalt of 
 Magnet Hill same locality. 
 
 Rounded granules of the mineral, some nearly of the size of a small pea, were 
 discovered in specimens of a peculiar porphyritic greenstone brought by Mr. Selwyn 
 from the base of Mount Timbertop. 
 
 For the common Garnet four new places of occurrence deserve special mention. 
 The first is the Bradford Lead, Maldon, where it is found in more or less perfect crystals 
 embedded in washed crystals and pebbles of rock crystal and smoky quartz. They were 
 first considered to be rubellite, but after Mr. Hornsby, of Maldon, who discovered the 
 mineral, sent specimens for examination to the Geological Survey Office, I identified them 
 as Garnets. More specimens were obtained by the Geological Survey party under Mr. 
 Brown's direction, amongst which was one pebble of smoky quartz, that yielded, on being 
 broken, about eight small crystals. They are of no value to the lapidary, as their size 
 only varies from that of a pin's head to that of a pea rarely and their color from light 
 honey-yellow to dark -blood and brownish-red, the larger crystals being generally cloudy 
 or quite opaque. The form of the perfect crystals is that of the rhombic-dodecahedron, 
 modified by the planes of the common trapezohedron ; but there are some crystals 
 generally those of yellow color that are real crystallographic curiosities. These 
 generally appear on being first exposed through breaking of the matrix as regular 
 hexagonal tables, or rather as the basal planes of hexagonal prisms, with the horizontal 
 edges truncated by very narrow pyramidal planes, and the basal plane itself mostly 
 showing fine concentric striae. On one or two crystals these striae appear, as it were, to 
 rise gradually from the margin towards the centre of the plane : they are in reality the 
 edges of innumerable, extremely thin, hexagonal plates of gradually decreasing size, 
 piled symmetrically upon each othor up to a point, thus forming apparently a very low 
 hexagonal pyramid. (Fig. 12 a.) It would hardly have been possible to recognize these 
 forms as modifications of monometric crys- 
 tals, had not a couple of them, on being 
 with considerable difficulty detached from 
 the quartz, exhibited triangular and rhom- 
 bic planes on the reverse of the quasi 
 pyramid, that enabled me to deduce the 
 abnormal forms as resulting from the im- 
 perfect development of part of, or more 
 commonly the halves of the crystals, i.e., 
 each is only properly developed up to a -p IQ I2 a -p lQ I2 j 
 
 plane cutting right through the centre of 
 the rhombic-dodecahedron, or running parallel to this centre plane, as shown in Fig. 126. 
 
 The second new locality of occurrence of the common Garnet is in the granite ranges 
 near Chiltern. Mr. Brough Smyth kindly showed me some time ago one of the specimens 
 found by the Rev. Mr. Love, of Rutherglen. This was an imperfect crystal of nearly the 
 size of a walnut, of a deep brownish-red color, in places rather opaque and flawed, and 
 showing the planes of the rhombic-dodecahedron and trapezohedron (truncating the 
 edges of the former) nearly in equilibrium, similar to the Garnets discovered in South 
 Australia. As specimens of this size, if clear and without flaws, would be of value to 
 the lapidary, a closer examination of the respective locality might perhaps prove 
 remunerative. 
 
 Quite recently Mr. Ed. Dunn, of Beechworth, presented me with a number of Garnet 
 crystals, from a large pin's head to above a pea in size, found on Lady Franklyn Hill, near 
 Chiltern. They are quite opaque, of dark greyish-brown color, and represent the com- 
 mon trapezohedron, some modified by narrow planes of the rhombic-dodecahedron. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 17 
 
 The fourth new find of Garnet, notified to me by Mr. Ed. Dunn, was made in workings 
 lying about two chains south of the shaft sunk on No. 3 tin-ore vein, near Beechworth, 
 previously described. The mineral occurs here in rounded grains and perfect crystals, 
 from a pin's head to that of a pea in size, which are of deep wine-yelldw color and semi- 
 transparent. The crystals represent the trapezohedron, rarely modified by planes of the 
 rhombic-dodecahedron. 
 
 QTJ-A.RTZ _AJN"ID SOME OF ITS 
 
 In my former description of Victorian minerals, I mentioned that near Dr. Baynton's 
 station very fine Quartz crystals occurred, some nearly two inches in length, each of 
 which showed within an envelope of Rock crystal a small crystal of white opaque Quartz. 
 Mr. Norman Taylor, field geologist, "the discoverer of the specimens, has since kindly 
 given me the following particulars with respect to their occurrence : On getting a hole 
 sunk in the granite on Jew's Harp Creek, south-west of Dr. Baynton's station, a hori- 
 zontal crack or elongated cavity was struck in the rock, the walls of which were lined 
 with the crystals pointing towards each other, and the intermediate spaces being filled 
 with a yellow clay. The crystals exhibit their mode of growth in a very marked 
 manner, especially when polished, and some show peculiar features, indicating some 
 disturbance during their formation. One, for instance, appears to be split at the top, 
 and within the opening lies a smaller imperfect crystal crosswise. On several others 
 the transparent envelope appears to have been broken down at the base, so as to permit 
 the protrusion of the pyramidal points of the inner white opaque crystals. One of 
 these looks as if it had been broken obliquely through the prism and re-cemented again 
 with a slight displacement, the edges of the junction showing narrow planes of the 
 pyramid. In most of the specimens found, the white opaque crystals appear within or 
 very near the centre of the envelope ; the remainder show them, however, quite on one 
 side. Very fine and large Rock crystals, some enclosing filamentous tufts of a green 
 mineral, probably chlorite, and attached to large crystals of orthoclase, have been found 
 in the bed of the Coliban Eiver, below Orr's station (Stratford Lodge). They are 
 apparently derived from a vein in granite under the little falls of the river. 
 
 Druses of fine large Quartz crystals (Rock crystal and Cairngorm occasionally) occur, 
 as mentioned, in the vein carrying molybdenite, wolfram, &c., discovered by Mr. Rule near 
 Maldon. A great number of the crystals I examined contain enclosed acicular crystals 
 and tufts of schorl, and some are modified by the more common hemihedral planes (z-2, 
 Fig. 1 86, Dana's Mineralogy). The most interesting specimen in Mr. Rule's possession, 
 however, is a tolerably clear crystal, about half an inch long, and nearly as broad, which 
 exhibits inside, near the top of the pyramid, a small tuft of schorl needles, and above this 
 a fluid cavity with a very lively air- or gas-bubble of nearly the size of a small pin's head. 
 
 Agate. 
 
 Two new places of occurrence of this mineral have been discovered, the one by Mr. 
 Hardy in the surface-drift near Berwick and Dandenong, the other by Mr. Charles 
 Wilkinson in the shingle bed at the mouth of the Gellibrand River, Cape Otway coast. 
 The specimens from both places show banded patterns, those from the latter being nodules 
 of 3 to 4 inches in diameter. 
 
 Flint. 
 
 It was also found by Mr. Hardy in nodular masses, several inches in diameter, in 
 the surface-drift near Dandenong. Color, dark smoky-brown with nearly opaline lustre; 
 nodules coated with a white earthy, silicious crust. 
 
 Fine nodular pieces of it have been found in the basalt near Sunbury. One specimen, 
 in the Public Museum collection, is colored light-blue in the centre, and greenish-brown 
 outside, showing in this outer division parts that are white, vesicular, and friable, and 
 
18 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 contain iron pyrites. Both the blue and brown portions become, according to Mr. Newbery 's 
 examination, opaque white on heating, and contain tPe and Al. The brown portion 
 contains 6-8 per cent, of H, and has a specific gravity of 2-049 tne blue nucleus gives 8-5 
 per cent. H, and has a specific gravity of 2-038. 
 
 Another new locality for Opal is the basalt of an outlier at Gelantipy, Gippsland. 
 It is there abundantly dispersed through the rock in small rounded grains, some of which, 
 .by showing some play of colors, resemble the veal precious Opal very much. 
 
 EIPIDOTE, EIPIDOSITE (EIPIIDOTE ZKOCIEO. 
 
 This mineral has not as yet been observed well crystallized in Victoria. It occurs 
 in the neighborhood of Talbot, on the range at the head of Nuggety Gully, in yellowish- 
 green patches of fibrous or divergent structure, associated with quartz and flesh-colored 
 orthoclase. This mineral mixture in which the felspar greatly predominates appears 
 to form a vein traversing syenite, and might be called either Epidote granite or Epidote 
 syenite, just according as the Epidote is considered to replace mica or hornblende. 
 
 Epidote occurs also in the rather rare form of a dense crystalline rock, associated 
 with a patch of diorite greenstone. The locality is in the lower silurian ranges, about 
 two and a half miles south-east of Tarilta, a little township on the Kangaroo Creek, seven 
 miles south of Castlemaine. In several holes sunk by the Geological Survey party to 
 determine the boundary of the greenstone, the Epidote rock was struck, forming 
 apparently a zone of uncertain width between the greenstone and silurian. It consists 
 of an intimate mixture of yellowish-green Epidote Pistacite with quartz, and is in 
 places rendered porphyritic by accession of thin needles of black hornblende and crystals 
 and crystalline particles of albite. A carefully selected sample of the dense green, non- 
 porphyritic rock showed a specific gravity of 3-25 ; and two quantitative analyses, one of 
 this, the other of a more quartzose portion, gave respectively : 
 
 No. i. No. 2. 
 
 Dense green rock. More quartzose sample. 
 
 SiO 2 ... ... 51-80 ... 5962 
 
 A1 2 O 3 ... ... 20-80 ... 17-86 
 
 Fe 2 O 3 ... ... 15-20 ... 5-60 
 
 CaO ... ... 12-20 ... 14-65 
 
 MgO ... ... traces ... traces 
 
 KO ... ... traces ... traces 
 
 NaO ... ... traces ... traces 
 
 HO ... 2-48 
 
 Of which the composition of No. 2 agrees tolerably well with that of Epiaosite from 
 Canada, analyzed by Sterry Hunt. A calculation to determine the amounts of quartz 
 and pure Epidote in the rock sample, No. i, from the respective specific gravities of the 
 three bodies taking quartz as 2*64, Epidote as 3-4, and the rock as 3-25 gives very 
 nearly sixteen per cent, of quartz and eighty-four per cent, of Epidote. Deducting the 
 former from the silica of the analysis, and calculating the remainder again to percentages, 
 leaves SiO 2 42-6, At. 2 O 3 24-8, Fe 2 O 3 18-1, CaO 14-5 a composition agreeing tolerably well 
 with that of the variety of epidote called Pistacite. 
 
 -A.TJGHTE. 
 
 This is rather a rare mineral in the colony, as it was hitherto known to occur 
 but sparingly and imperfectly crystallized in two or three places. Fine solitary crystals 
 of it. of the form shown in Fig. 1 3, have lately, however, been found at three new localities. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTOKIA. 
 
 19 
 
 The first is at the foot of Mount Wallace, near Steiglitz, in a kind of basaltic ash, and 
 
 the discovery was made by the Water Supply engineer's party, whilst sinking trial shafts. 
 
 The crystals which I identified as Augite in a lot found by my brother are up to half an 
 
 inch in size, and generally associated with crystalline pieces of oligoclase. 
 
 The small plane t (see figure) appears to be very rare. The other two new 
 
 localities, found by Mr. Brown's Geological Survey party, are on the slopes 
 
 of Mount Hepburn and near a spring on the west side of Mount Moorokyle. 
 
 The matrix of the crystals is here also a crumbly basaltic ash ; they are, 
 
 however, very small, generally not above an eighth of an inch in size, yet 
 
 mostly perfect all round. Twin crystals and the small oblique top plane 
 
 t appear to be pretty frequent. 
 
 Amongst a number of minerals and rock specimens collected by Mr. Selwyn on his 
 geological excursion to Mount Timbertop are several from the flank of this mountain 
 that closely resemble the specimens of greenish-black Serpentine rock I brought from the 
 Radau Valley, Hartz Mountains, North Germany ; and the result of a quantitative 
 analysis of the rock by Mr. Cosmo Newbery has indeed proved it to be Serpentine, and not 
 very different in composition, at least as regards the principal constituents, from the 
 Hartz rock, as will be seen on comparing the two analyses : 
 
 s 
 
 Ti0 2 
 
 SiO 2 
 
 A1 2 3 
 
 Fe 2 3 
 
 Cr 2 3 
 
 FeO 
 
 CuO 
 
 MnO 
 
 CaO 
 
 Eock from 
 Mount Timbertop. 
 
 39'9 
 8-20 
 
 KO 
 
 NaO 
 Chromic Iron 
 
 HO' 
 
 36-80 
 
 15-40 
 
 100*30 
 
 Rock from the Radau Valley, Hartz ; 
 analyzed by Prof. Dr. Streng.* 
 
 trace 
 
 35 >6 7 
 2-98 
 6 '04 
 
 0-87 
 
 4'95 
 trace 
 
 O'll 
 
 0-18 
 
 35'3 
 077 
 
 i'37 
 0-03 
 
 1 2 '04 
 
 100-04 
 
 * Bronn's and Leonhard's Year-book for Mineralogy, Geognosy, <&c., 1862, pages 513 to 556, and 933 to 989. 
 
 Besides color and composition, there are in addition two other interesting points of 
 resemblance between the Mount Timbertop and Hartz Serpentine specimens, viz., firstly, 
 that both are traversed by thin seams of light-yellow, silky-fibrous Chrysotile, a sub- 
 species of Serpentine, and, secondly, that whilst the latter specimens show in places a 
 peculiar strong semi-metallic lustre, indicative of the presence of the mineral schiller spar, 
 the former exhibit this lustre also, though far less pronounced ; from which we may 
 conclude, either that schiller spar was once present, and is now more or less changed into 
 Serpentine, or that it is perhaps just in course of formation from this rock. 
 
 B 2 
 
20 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 Two of a number of worn crystals and pebbles of smoky quartz, obtained from the 
 Bradford Lead, Maldon, contain a mineral embedded that, by its color and perfect cleava- 
 bility into thin transparent laminae, greatly resembles muscovite mica. In one of the 
 specimens it forms irregularly-shaped grains of a rose-red color, in the other a lenticular- 
 shaped small mass, colored yellowish-white. Its hardness is about ^ ; it has a pearly 
 lustre on the cleavage planes ; fuses before the blow-pipe with extreme difficulty on 
 the edges to a white enamel ; gives a fiue blue color with cobalt solution, and, what 
 distinguishes it from mica, gives off water in the closed tube on heating, and the laminae 
 it can be split into are non-elastic. All these characters accord '.veil with those given 
 for Damourite; still a quantitative analysis (for which the material at hand does not 
 suffice) would no doubt be desirable to conclusively establish the identity. 
 
 This mineral, which is quite new to Victoria, I identified in a fine specimen, kindly 
 shown to me by Mr. Th. Couchman, Chief Mining Surveyor, who obtained it from 
 Pleasant Creek, where it occurs in the cap of the Hampshire Reef, Golden Point. It 
 has a fine honey-yellow color, and strong opaline lustre, with a certain iridescence playing 
 through it in different directions, is very brittle, and has a hardness about 3. Treated 
 before the blowpipe it gives off much water in the closed tube, falls with some intumes- 
 cence to powder, and affords a fine blue color with solution of nitrate of cobalt ; 
 gelatinizes with hydrochloric acid. These reactions and its hardness prove clearly its 
 difference from opal, for which it might easily be mistaken on account of its outward 
 characters. It occurs, or rather forms kernels, in a white, rather loose sugary mineral, 
 that shows similar reactions before the blowpipe as those just given, and may therefore 
 be a variety of Allophane. 
 
 (IPSIETJIDO STEATITE). 
 
 Substances that would come under this head have been found at several new locali- 
 ties. They are mainly composed of silicate of alumina, with a large percentage of water, 
 soft, clay-like, of yellowish-white or greenish color, have a somewhat pearly or waxy 
 lustre, a strong greasy feel, and are more or less translucent. 
 
 In the auriferous quartz veins traversing the large diorite dyke of the Morning 
 Star Hill, Wood's Point, in the Alps Great Central Company's ground, I found a yellowish 
 mineral of this class abundantly distributed through the quartz in small seams arid 
 patches. In places it was strongly impregnated with iron and arsenical pyrites, and 
 then mostly mottled bluish-green, no doubt the result of the partial decomposition of 
 these ores. 
 
 Thin seams and small patches of a similar mineral I found also in a yellowish soapy 
 clay, apparently a decomposed elvan dyke, that forms the hanging wall of, and in places 
 penetrates into, the Energetic Reef, Lauriston. Pieces of it, if placed in water, very 
 quickly slacken, and the paste assumes a somewhat gelatinous appearance. 
 
 From one of the auriferous quartz reefs near Alexandra specimens have come 
 under my notice, containing seams and patches that exactly resembled saponite, but gave 
 before the blowpipe a fine alumina reaction. One of the specimens showed the interesting 
 feature of several good-sized gold specks being enclosed within the mass of this mineral. 
 
 A yellowish-green, subtransparent mineral of striking talc-l'ike aspect, and of same 
 hardness, was lately forwarded to me by Mr. Ed. Dunn, who found it in the euritic 
 granite dyke carrying veins of tin-ore near Beechworth. It has a foliated, in places 
 radiated, lamellar structure, and splits into thin flexible non-elastic scales of pearly 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 21 
 
 lustre. Treated before the blowpipe, it yields water in the glass tube, and in the forceps, 
 turns pearly white, swells and exfoliates strongly, and fuses with great difficulty on the 
 edges. With cobalt solution results a fine blue color. 
 
 According to these results, in connection with its physical properties, the mineral 
 conforms most to Pyrophyllite, though it would need a quantitative analysis to remove all 
 doubt. 
 
 [PHOILEKITE. 
 
 A new locality of occurrence of this mineral is, as before mentioned, the Albion Com- 
 pany's Reef, Steiglitz, in which it is found associated with bournonite. tetrahedrite, gold, &c., 
 forming thin yellowish-white flakes and flexible lamina in hollows of the quartz, and often 
 covering crystals of it and of the two. first-named minerals completely. It could not be 
 ascertained whether it also results here, as it does at Blacksmith's Gully, Fryer's Creek, 
 from the decomposition of albite. 
 
 A description of this new mineral has already been given in the Exhibition Essay of 
 1867; for certain reasons it deserves, however, a further notice. It occurs in upper silurian 
 rocks on the flank of the Mount Ida Range, about four and a half miles north-west of 
 Heathcote, whether as a dyke or irregular mass, the explorations do not at present permit 
 to determine ; yet it very probably stands in some connection with one of the number of 
 diorite dykes traversing that particular district. So far as is known, the mineral, when first 
 discovered, perhaps as an outcrop, was mistaken for copper ore (malachite), and a shaft, said 
 to be about 70 feet deep, was sunk on the spot. From the heap of stuff round this shaft, 
 which has now fallen in, Mr. Norman Taylor, whilst geologically surveying the district, 
 obtained a great number of specimens. These have now enabled us to thoroughly examine 
 it and the minerals associated with it, obtain thus a better idea of their true nature, and 
 correct some mistakes in the original description, which was founded on the examination of 
 a few small specimens, the only ones then available. 
 
 Selwynite has, as yet, only been found massive; hardness, 3 to 4; specific gravity, 2-53; 
 lustre, earthy, sometimes waxy ; fracture, uneven and splintery; brittle. Its color ranges 
 from siskin to dark-emerald and bluish-green, and it is sometimes minutely mottled in all 
 these shades of green; sections of it up to a line and more in thickness are generally fine 
 green translucent. Before the blowpipe it whitens and fuses on the edges to a greyish-white 
 blebby glass; gives off water in the closed tube, and colors the beads of borax and micro- 
 cosmic salt light-emerald green. Strong acids only partially dissolve it. 
 
 Four quantitative analyses of the mineral by Mr. Cosmo Newbery gave the following 
 results: 
 
 
 I. 
 
 11. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Si 
 
 47-iS 
 
 47'*5 
 
 48-42 
 
 48-23 
 
 Al 
 
 33^3 
 
 35-28 
 
 347* 
 
 38 16 
 
 F 
 
 7-61 
 
 7-82 
 
 6-94 
 
 6-14 
 
 Mg 
 
 4-56 
 
 2-42 
 
 2-II 
 
 I-2I 
 
 Na 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 2-03 
 
 3'12 
 
 H 
 
 6-23 
 
 5-67 
 
 4-83 
 
 z- 9 o 
 
 
 9878 
 
 98-44 
 
 99'5 
 
 99-76 
 
 I. Analysis of first specimen found. II., III., IV. Eecent analyses of fresh specimens, showing 
 similar color and hardness. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 According to these variations in composition, most marked as regards the protoxide 
 bases and the water, the mineral, like others of its class, does not seem to be constituted after 
 a fixed chemical formula, for, on calculating the oxygen ratios, we find : 
 
 
 Si 
 
 M 
 
 * 
 
 iig 
 
 Na 
 
 H 
 
 I. 
 
 25-15 
 
 15*50 
 
 2-39 
 
 1-82 
 
 
 5'54 
 
 II. 
 
 25-20 
 
 16-44 
 
 2-45 
 
 097 
 
 ... 
 
 5-04 
 
 III. 
 
 25-82 
 
 16-18 
 
 2-18 
 
 0-84 
 
 0-52 
 
 4-29 
 
 IV. 
 
 2572 
 
 17-78 
 
 1-93 
 
 0-48 
 
 0-82 
 
 2-58 
 
 
 i i 
 
 
 
 
 Or for, 
 
 
 Si 
 
 ii 
 
 R 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 Si 
 
 I 
 
 R 
 
 H 
 
 I. 
 
 25-15 
 
 17-89 
 
 1-82 
 
 5-54 
 
 j 
 
 
 13-82 
 
 9-S3 
 
 , 
 
 3-04 
 
 11. 
 
 25-20 
 
 18-89 
 
 0-97 
 
 5-04 
 
 (^ 
 
 
 26-00 
 
 19-47 
 
 i 
 
 5-20 
 
 IIL 
 
 25-82 
 
 18-36 
 
 1-36 
 
 4-29 
 
 
 ) 
 
 19-00 
 
 I3-50 
 
 i 
 
 3-15 
 
 IV. 
 
 27-72 
 
 19-71 
 
 1-30 
 
 2-58 
 
 j 
 
 ! 
 
 1970 
 
 I5-I6 
 
 1 
 
 2'00 
 
 which lead to very different and unsatisfactory formulae. For instance, taking for No. I. the 
 oxygen ratios : 
 
 14 : 10 I I ; 3 = 42 : 30 .* 3 : 9, we obtain 21 Si, 10 rR, 3 R, 9 H, 
 which may be combined either as : 
 
 3RSi*+5S 2 Si 3 + 9 H = 3MgS i2 + 5 (Al + i&) 2 Si 3 + 9H ; 
 or like : 
 
 3RSi + 2&*Si+9H=3MgSi+2(|:Al + i*)s Si 9 + 9 H, 
 
 giving the percentage ratios : 
 
 8147-83; il 34-21; *7-26; Mg4'55; H 6-15 = 10000. 
 
 For analysis No. III., the oxygen ratios would be : 19 .' 13*5 .' I .' 3 = 
 38 .' 27 ; 2 : 6, giving : 
 
 19 Si, 9!^ 2 R, 6 H ; nearest formula R 2 Si + 9 ^ Si 2 + 6 H ; or 
 
 (| Mg + f Na) 2 Si + 9 (f -Al + i *) Si 2 + 6 H, 
 for which percentage ratios: 
 
 Si 49*08; Al 35*48 ; &? 6-59 ; Mg 2-07, Na2'i3 ; 114-65 = 100-00. 
 On calculating the oxygen ratios for -B: =z 3, we obtain, for the four analyses: 
 
 
 Si 
 
 -R 
 
 R 
 
 H 
 
 
 Si 
 
 
 
 R 
 
 H 
 
 I. 
 II. 
 
 4-22 
 
 4-00 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 0-30 
 0-15 
 
 0-93 
 0-80 
 
 i 
 
 42-2 
 40-0 
 
 30 
 30 
 
 3 -o 
 i"5 
 
 9'3 
 
 8-0 
 
 III. 
 
 4-22 
 
 3 
 
 0'22 
 
 0-70 
 
 ( 
 
 42-0 
 
 30 
 
 2'2 
 
 7-0 
 
 IV. 
 
 3-91 
 
 3 
 
 0-I 9 5 
 
 0-39 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 39-1 
 
 30 
 
 I- 9 
 
 3'9 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA, 
 which would correspond closely to atoms of : 
 
 23 
 
 
 Si 
 
 & 
 
 it 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 II 
 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 i*5 
 
 8 
 
 Ill 
 
 21 
 
 IO 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 IV 
 
 20 
 
 IO 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 and allow us to construct the following formulae : 
 
 I. 
 
 3 R Si + 2 (ft* Si 9 ) + 9 H = 3 Mg Si + 2 ( 
 
 II. 
 
 Rf Si 2 + 2(-R 5 Si 9 ) + 8H= Mgf Si 2 + 
 
 III. 
 
 + ft *) 5 Si 9 + 9 H. 
 
 + | G*) 5 Si 9 + 8 H. 
 
 IV. 
 
 giving percentage ratios for : 
 
 
 I. 
 
 11. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Si 
 
 47-83 
 
 48-07 
 
 48-91 
 
 48-55 
 
 M 
 
 34-21 
 
 36-10 
 
 35-00 
 
 36-46 
 
 Gf 
 
 7-26 
 
 7-66 
 
 7-42 
 
 773 
 
 Mg 
 
 4-55 
 
 2-40 
 
 1-86 
 
 1-2, 
 
 Na 
 
 ... 
 
 
 1-92 
 
 3^4 
 
 H 
 
 6-15 
 
 577 
 
 4-89 
 
 2- 9 I 
 
 
 lOO'OO 
 
 100 00 
 
 lOO'OO 
 
 100*00 
 
 NOTE. The atomic weights used in the foregoing calculations, and throughout these notes, are those 
 given in Dana's Mineralogy, fifth edition. 
 
 It will on comparison be found that these results agree pretty well with those of the 
 four analyses, whilst the formulae clearly represent that the silicate of the protoxides, 
 together with the water, are the changeable constituents of the mineral. The apparently 
 fixed constituent, the silicate of the sesquioxides, stands in a peculiarly interesting connection 
 with another mineral, that traverses Selwynite in thin pearly seams, sometimes resembling 
 silky threads, and that, from its indeed very close resemblance to talc, was mistaken for 
 such, though after a recent close examination and analysis, which the original specimens 
 did not permit, it has turned out to be quite a new mineral, and will be noticed next. The 
 color of Selwynite is due to the sesquioxide of chromium, which is no doubt derived from 
 the chromic iron-ore, abundant, as is well known, in the Heathcote and Mount Ida districts. 
 In Dana's Mineralogy, fifth edition, 1868, the mineral is, on account of this chromiferous 
 character, classed together with wolchonskoite and chrome ochre, in the appendix to the 
 hydrous silicates, though with one exception that of a chrome ochre from Halle, Germany 
 
24 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 (vide Analysis, page 510, Dana) their differences in chemical composition are very great. 
 Misled by the mistake regarding the talc-like mineral, and the constituent Mg, 1 was 
 originally under the impression that Selwynite might be an altered chromiferous serpentine, 
 and took it to be allied to pyrosclerite ; but since the recent investigation I am inclined to 
 regard it as perhaps an altered felspathic mineral, related to some of the species placed by 
 Dana under the Finite group ; for instance, to gieseckite and dysyntribite. For the sake of 
 easy comparison, I give here the results of the analyses by Stromeyer and Pfaff of the 
 former mineral, as stated in Dana's Mineralogy, page 481, and of the latter by Shepard, 
 American Journal of Science, II., se. XII., page 209 ; also that of No. III. Analysis of 
 Selwynite by Newbery : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Si 
 
 -Al 
 
 e 
 
 * 
 
 Mn 
 
 Fe 
 
 Mg 
 
 Na 
 
 K 
 
 H 
 
 
 Gieseckite Sfroroeyer ... 
 
 4.6-08 
 
 33-83 
 
 3-36 
 
 ... 
 
 i 15 
 
 ... 
 
 I'20 
 
 
 6-20 
 
 4-89 
 
 = 9671 
 
 Ditto Pfaff ... 
 
 4.8-00 
 
 32-50 
 
 4-00 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 I' 5 
 
 
 6-50 
 
 5-50 
 
 = 98^00 
 
 Dysyntribite Shepard ... 
 
 47-68 
 
 41-50 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 5-48 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 4-83 
 
 = 99^9 
 
 Selwynite, No. III. Analysis 
 Newlery 
 
 48-42 
 
 347 2 
 
 ... 
 
 6-94 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 2'I I 
 
 2-03 
 
 ... 
 
 4-83 
 
 = 99'05 
 
 These analyses show, that besides its containing a somewhat smaller amount of different 
 protoxide silicate, the main specific character distinguishing Selwynite from the other 
 minerals is only the presence in it, as an isomorphous substitute for alumina, of the sesqui- 
 oxide of chromium, to which it owes ita fine shades of green color. In a practical point of 
 view it may likely, on account of this color, become of some value to the jeweller and 
 lapidary; for instance, as a substitute for the small ornaments of New Zealand nephrite, 
 which are at present very fashionable. It takes a very fair polish, but has unfortunately a 
 tendency to crack along numerous fine joints, traversing larger pieces, thus rendering the 
 cutting of ornaments beyond one inch in size rather difficult. Still, there is a probability 
 that this unfavorable property, attaching to pieces taken from the surface of a heap of stuff 
 for many years exposed to atmospheric influence, may be altogether absent in the mineral 
 when freshly broken from the mass underground. 
 
 T^JLCOSITE. 
 
 A n^w mineral species. It occurs, as just mentioned, in thin, shining, transversely 
 minutely laminated seams and threads in the selwynite of Heathcote, being in appearance, 
 hardness, and feel so exactly like talc, that it was at first mistaken for it. Hardness, i, in 
 the line of lamination ; 1-5 to 2'o at right-angles against it; specific gravity, 2-46 to 2-5; 
 color, silver-white, with sometimes a faint greenish or yellowish tint; high pearly lustre ; 
 laminae or scales generally very small, translucent, and slightly flexible not elastic. No 
 distinct crystals observed as yet ; they appear, however, to be rhombic plates, according to 
 some specimens on which the exposed broad surfaces of seams show an irregularly oblique 
 network of scaly crystals of apparently rhombic character. These surfaces bear some 
 resemblance to the drusy aggregations, with upright edges of small obtuse rhombohedions, 
 in which calotte and brown spar are often met with. Treated before the blowpipe, it gives 
 off water in the closed tube; becomes white opaque, and exfoliates in the forceps, and, after 
 some blowing, fuses at 4 to a white blebby enamel ; fine blue color with cobalt solution. 
 
 Two quantitative analyses by Mr. Cosmo Newbery gave the following results : 
 
 I. 
 11. 
 
 Si 
 
 49" 01 
 49'7 
 
 45' 1 
 46-96 
 
 trace 
 
 Fe 
 
 trace 
 
 Mg 
 
 trace 
 
 H 
 
 trace 3*73 
 
 99*9 
 99-76 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 25 
 
 The oxygen ratios for silica, alumina, and water result as follows : 
 
 si jy H 
 
 I. ... 26*14. 2.1 'oz ... 4"43 
 
 II. ... 2617 ... 21-88 ... 3-34. 
 
 Or J ! - 373 ... 3'oo ... 0-63 
 
 ' 1 II. 3'45 - 3'oo ... 0-46 
 
 Or, 
 
 I II. ... 17-25 ... 15-00 ... 2-30 
 
 of which the mean would closely conform to : 
 
 9 Si ; 5 Al ; 3 H = A 5 Si 9 + 3 H 
 with the calculated percentage composition of: 
 
 Si A4 H 
 
 4870 4^*43 4*87 = 100*00 
 
 A comparison of this formula with that found for selwynite, for instance of No. III. 
 analysis, viz. ; 
 
 R 2 Si 3 + 2 (S* Si) + 7 H 
 
 shows a remarkable coincidence in the ratios of the sesquioxide and silica ; in fact, it would 
 appear as if Talcosite had been formed out of selwynite by removal or dissolving away, in the 
 line of its seams, of all the protoxide silicate, half of that of the sesquioxide, including all 
 the chromic oxide, and some of the water; or as if it had, as it were, crystallized out of the 
 selwynite, leaving the respective constituents behind. A great difficulty experienced in its 
 decomposition speaks, however, somewhat against this latter view. 
 
 As in none of the Mineralogies consulted a mineral can be found similarly constituted, 
 it must therefore be regarded as a new species, and it is proposed to call it Talcosite, on 
 account of its close resemblance to talc. In its physical properties, and the quantity of water 
 it contains, it is no doubt closely allied to pyrophyllite, but differs from it too considerably in 
 the percentages of silica and alumina as to be considered identical. On the other hand, it 
 also has some resemblance to several of the varieties of kaolinite (described in Dana's 
 Mineralogy, fifth edition) both in outward character and in approaching them in its contained 
 silica and alumina; however, we meet here again the material distinction of the kaolinites 
 containing nearly three times as much water. Dana's comparison of pinite to an alkali- 
 alumina serpentine and pyrophyllite to an alumina talc, would no doubt be applicable also to 
 selwynite and Talcosite, with this difference, that the former may be more strictly desig- 
 nated as a chrome-alumina serpentine. 
 
 IFIBKOILITE. 
 
 Mr. Ed. Dunn, of Beechworth, presented me lately with a number of specimens, collected 
 in the granitic neighborhood of that town, amongst which I recognized three pieces of the 
 mineral Fibrolite, which has hitherto only been known to occur in the granite of the Moroka 
 Valley, Gippsland. It is of fibrous massive structure, greyish-white and hair-brown color, 
 and bears great resemblance to tremolite or asbestiform hornblende, for which indeed it might 
 very easily be mistaken. Its perfect infusibility before the blowpipe, and the fine blue color 
 it gives with solution of cobalt, shows, however, the distinction. A qualitative analysis by 
 Mr. Newbery showed only alumina and silica, and a doubtful trace of magnesia. 
 
 This zeolite was hitherto only known to occur very finely crystallized in the older 
 basalt of Phillip Island. It has recently, however, been also found in the basalt of Chambers's 
 quarry, Richmond, associated with herschelite and phillipsite. The crystals are, however, 
 very small the largest scarcely a line in diameter and form dense aggregations, or regular 
 drusy coatings on some of the specimens, and being of yellowish-white color and nearly 
 transparent, appear generally quite black on account of the dark basaltic back-ground shining 
 through them. Their form is the common trapezohedron, not modified, as far as I could 
 observe, by any other planes. 
 
28 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 SCOLECITE. 
 
 I identified this zeolite for the first time in thin drusy coatings of very minute crystals 
 on decomposing granite from O'Keefe's shaft, Preston Vale (Coliban water supply contract). 
 The small size of the crystals allows nothing beyond recognizing them as prismatic, with 
 pyramidal planes. The strong curling up of the mineral before the blowpipe and the large 
 amount of lime it contains, as indicated by a qualitative analysis by Mr. Newbery, leave no 
 doubt, however, of its being Scolecite. Its origin is most likely, in some measure, due to the 
 decomposition of the oligoclase felspar, which is very abundant in the granite of the just- 
 mentioned locality. 
 
 I also recognized Scolecite lately by its reaction before the blowpipe, and in the moist 
 way on some specimens of a dense greenstone from the neighborhood of Yackandandah, sent 
 to me by Mr. Ed. Dunn. It occurs in joints and cracks of the greenstone in thin, white 
 coatings with radiated structure somewhat resembling wavellite. 
 
 A zeolite likewise new to Victoria. It occurs in sphasroidal nobs, and rarely stalactitic 
 forms, in hollows of the very vesicular basalt from the shaft of the Ballarat and Chines 
 Mining Company, Clunes. The nobs are of a pale-blue color, semi-translucent, and have a 
 weak pearly lustre, closely resembling some mammillated chalcedony. On account of this 
 appearance the miners call it pearl-stone. The internal structure of the nobs is minutely 
 radiated, and the fracture shows also pearly lustre. The stalactitic forms are generally white 
 opaque, but in fracture similar to the sphaerules. Before the blowpipe the mineral swells and 
 curls not quite as strongly as scolecite and fuses ultimately to a white blebby glass. 
 It is associated with herschelite, chabasite, and calcite. 
 
 HEKSCHELITE. 
 
 After the first discovery by Mr. Wilkinson (of the former Geological Survey) of this 
 interesting and rare zeolite several years ago in an old basalt quarry near the River 
 Yarra at Richmond, only a few inferior specimens were obtained from this place, owing to 
 the flooding of the quarry by the river and its consequent abandonment since. Last year 
 Mr. Ed. Pittman, assistant in the Geological Survey laboratory, found, however, in Chainbers's 
 large quarries, adjoining the old quarry, not only specimens of the old type of Herschelite 
 crystals, described by me in the Exhibition Essays of 1867, page 61, and for the sake of 
 comparison respresented in Fig. 14, but also, associated with phillipsite, analcime, and calcite, 
 very fine crystals a number nearly perfect all round showing modifications of planes not 
 recorded in the principal works on mineralogy. The most interesting of these is shown in 
 Figs. 1 6 a and 6. It consists of a rather obtuse hexagonal pyramid r with replacement of 
 the lateral corners by planes p of a second, acute, hexagonal pyramid, and it will be seen, on 
 compaiing it with Fig. 14 of the old 
 type crystal, that the perfect pyra- 
 mid r is indicated on the latter by 
 small triangular planes, which in 
 Fig. 15 (another form from the 
 new place) have grown to a size, 
 as to be, as it were, in equilibrium 
 with the acute pyramid/? and ter- 
 minal plane o. About the identity 
 of the respective planes on the three 
 forms there can be no doubt, as 
 proved by a number of measure- 
 ments, and it must be remarked 
 that the pyramidal planes r have 
 never been observed except in com- 
 bination with the particular pyra- 
 mid p. They are generally bright 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
 FIG. 1 6 a. 
 
 FIG. 1 6 6. 
 
MINERALOGY OP VICTORIA. 
 
 27 
 
 and even below, l>ut become dull, and their terminal edges appear rounded off towards the 
 apex, that has as yet but very rarely been seen perfect on any specimen found. The planes p 
 show a very flat re-entering angle (as noticed of those of the old type crystal), have a 
 bright, glassy lustre, but are extremely uneven, and therefore very difficult to measure with 
 any degree of accuracy. The following angles have been obtained as the mean of a 
 number of tolerably well-agreeing measurements of different crystals : p : p' = 134 10' ; 
 r : r = 145, r : r' = 73 51' (73 56' 32* calculated on taking r : r = 145 correct as the 
 better angle). Neither the first nor last angle agrees with that given by Dr. Victor von 
 Lang in his mineralogical notes (Phil. Magazine, series 4, vol. 28, page 506) of apparently 
 analogous planes, 502 : 502 = 50 30' (compt.), Fig. i, Plate VII., of a crystal of Herschelite 
 from Richmond, of one of the first specimens found by Mr. Wilkinson, and presented by Mr. 
 Selwyn to the British Museum, The learned doctor makes also no mention whatever of 
 the indication of the second pyramid r, nor of the flat re-entering angle of planes p, both 
 which characteristics I have never seen absent on this type of crystal, and it is therefore quite 
 evident to me that he measured a very rare form, of which no specimens have come under 
 my notice. The crystals of form Fig. 16 are generally quite transparent, rarely white opaque, 
 and sit seldom on the hard basalt, but mostly on a thin layer of brown or greenish-black, soapy 
 clay, that lines the cavities of the rock a circumstance which makes specimens difficult to 
 preserve, on account of the cracking of the clay on exposure to the 
 atmosphere. They appear in irregular drusy aggregations, rarely 
 singly grown up (Mr. Pittman presented, besides smaller ones, 
 one specimen to the Public Museum, nearly 6 inches square covered 
 all over with fine transparent crystals), but show no tendency to the 
 pretty, rosette-like grouping (Fig. 17) of the crystals of the old type. 
 Of these latter, Mr. Pittman found some white opaque ones of nearly 
 f inch in diameter, also some smaller transparent ones, grown ii re- 
 gularly round a thin vein of dark, hardened clay. Some of these strings of crystals are 
 above i inch in length, and fine single crystals, perfect all round, could be obtained from 
 them by careful detachment. 
 
 The rarest new forms of the mineral were found by Mr. Norman Taylor, and are repre- 
 sented in Figs. 1 8 and 19. In 
 
 Fig. 1 8 the planes of the very g^_ I " l^^m ^ST i o 
 
 acute pyramid are deeply striated 
 horizontally, and therefore not 
 fit for measurement. The whole 
 aspect of the crystals is very near FJG ^ Fm ^ 
 
 that of hexagonal prisms; some 
 
 have the central horizontal edge quite obliterated, and appear thus barrel -shaped, similar 
 to those of pyromorphite. Fig. 19 : Perfect hexagonal tables, the prismatic planes strongly 
 striated horizontally, and the basal edges replaced by pyramidal planes, too narrow and 
 uneven for measurement. This form is very similar to one from Aci Reale, Sicily, shown 
 in Fig. 3, Plate VII., of Dr. Victor von Lang's mineralogical notes, above referred to. The 
 specimen found by Mr. Taylor does not, however, present single crystals, but always two and 
 two grown together with the basal planes, as Fig. 19 shows. 
 
 It was formerly supposed that Herschelite belonged to the rhombohedral system, and, 
 like levyne and gmeUnite, was compounded of several rhombohedrons. Dr. Victor von Lang 
 proved, however, by optical investigation that the simple crystal of Herschelite, yet unknown, 
 must belong to the orthorhombic system, and that six are twinned together in the usual 
 compound forms. Touching this latter deduction, I have to record some observations on a 
 series of crystals which not being proficient enough in crystallography I have some 
 diffidence in believing, might, if seen by the learned doctor, cause him, perhaps, to modify his 
 opinion, at least for certain cases. Whilst examining the great number of fine specimens 
 of Herschelite found by Mr. Pittman, I noticed that the always more or less rounded 
 top planes of some of the crystals had a frosted or roughish-glistening appearance, and on 
 examining one under the microscope found that this was not due to a crystalline coating of 
 
28 
 
 CONTEIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 FIG. 25 a. 
 
 p 
 FIG. 25 b. 
 
 FIG. 26 a. 
 
 FIG. 26 6. 
 
 smaller crystals, as I at first supposed, but to countless minute triangular points or corners 
 rising out of the mass of the crystal. On following this discovery up further, I was, on a 
 number of different crystals, able to trace a regular gradation in the size of the points on 
 the one hand, to their being so minute as to be hardly perceptible under the -inch 
 objective of the microscope, presenting to the naked eye the usual dull, to all appearance 
 smooth top plane on the other hand, I found, 
 however, crystals with upstanding points, nearly 
 one-third line in size, some quite sharp (Fig. 20), 
 but others with shining, partly triangular, partly 
 trapezoidal curved planes truncating the sharp 
 points (Figs. 21 and 22), producing a mixed dull 
 and bright aspect of the top plane in reflected 
 light (Fig. 23). In addition to, or rather as a 
 consequence of this, the basal edges prove in 
 side view to be acutely serrated, and whilst the 
 common flat re-entering angles that lie gene- 
 rally in the centres of the pyramidal planes, 
 communicate with one of these sharp indenta- 
 tions (of the basal edges), the terminal pyramidal 
 edges of all the crystals examined merge into 
 acute indented angles towards the basal plane. 
 Fig. 24 represents this aspect of a crystal. Figs. 25 a and 6, and 26 a and b, show the 
 appearance of the small crystal points lying along the t>asal edges ; p being part of the 
 pyramidal plane of the large compound crystal. On reviewing all the facts in connection 
 with this peculiar structure of the common type of Herschelite crystal, might it not be 
 concluded, that the latter is symmetrically built up not of six but of a variable, indefinite 
 number of mic r o-crystals ? Any expert crystallographer examining the specimens could, I 
 am convinced, not come to another result. 
 
 On one specimen I found also a number of crystals which showed globular, quite bright 
 (appearing like glazed), though uneven and minutely broken top planes, in combination with 
 planes of both pyramids p and r, the former without any trace of an indented angle, the latter 
 rather imperfect, being deeply striated, with a flat indented angle in the line, where the 
 striae meet, see Fig. 27. Accompanying these crystals I noticed crystals of what appeared to 
 me phillipsite, of quite the same color as the former, and it struck me, from their peculiar 
 mode of aggregation and the strong striation of the pyramidal 
 planes, which appeared to meet- at a more obtuse angle than 
 usual that twelve of them twinned together with their ter- 
 minal points rounded off, and their prismatic planes meeting 
 at angles of 134, to form pyramid p, would constitute the 
 crystal depicted in Fig. 27. However, the possibility or other- 
 wise of this combination must be left to crystallographers to 
 determine : if possible for these crystals, it certainly does not suit 
 
 FIG. 27. 
 
 the structure of those previously described ; for the micro- crystals, composing them, have not 
 the slightest resemblance to those of phillipsite. A strong obstacle in all cases, besides, would 
 be the difference in the chemical compositions of the two minerals, as given further on.* 
 
 With regard to the cleavage of Herschelite, which is stated to be basal, I was not able to 
 observe it on any of the specimens examined, nor on a number of crystals broken intentionally 
 for the purpose of finding it : nothing but conchoidal fracture was the result of the operation. 
 
 In order to see how far the chemical composition of the Richmond Herschelite agreed 
 with that of the mineral from other places, Mr. Edwd. Pittman made with special care, 
 
 * Since the above was written, Mr. Rule found in Chambers's quarry specimens which show what cer- 
 tainly appear very much like single crystals of Herschelite, and their combinations, to forms like Figs. i6a and 
 17 some with perfect terminal points. These single crystals, which are very small, strongly resemble 
 rhombohedrons, more or less modified, and with mostly diagonally broken, strongly striated and curved planes, 
 similar to Figs. 14 and 15 of chabasite from Malmsbury, given in the Exhibition Essay of 1867. 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 29 
 
 under the direction of Mr. C. Newbery, three quantitative analyses, that gave the following 
 results : 
 
 
 Si0 2 
 
 A1A 
 
 CaO 
 
 KG 
 
 NaO 
 
 HO 
 
 
 I. Large opaque crystals 
 II. Transparent, tabular crystals 
 
 45*33 
 
 22"22 
 
 7-11 
 
 0-97 
 
 5'54 
 
 18-67 
 
 = 99' 8 4 
 
 with frosted tops 
 III. Double hexagonal pyramids, 
 
 46-05 
 
 22-07 
 
 7'o6 
 
 0-72 
 
 5-48 
 
 19-25 
 
 = 100-63 
 
 partly transparent 
 
 46-26 
 
 23-04 
 
 7-02 
 
 0*09 
 
 5-96 
 
 18-52 
 
 = 100*89 
 
 On comparing these compositions with one of those given in Dana's Mineralogy for 
 Herschelite from Aci Castello, Sicily, for instance: 
 
 Si M Ca Na K H 
 
 47-39 20-90 0-38 8-33 4-39 17-84 = 99-23 
 
 a marked difference will be found, especially as regards the protoxide bases; lime and soda 
 occupying in our mineral the place of potash and soda in that from Sicily. 
 
 A calculation of the oxygen ratios of the different components results for the three 
 analyses as follows : 
 
 
 Si 
 
 M 
 
 Ca 
 
 Na 
 
 K 
 
 H 
 
 I. 
 
 24-17 
 
 10-35 
 
 2-03 
 
 i '43 
 
 0*16 
 
 16-61 
 
 n. 
 
 24-56 
 
 10-28 
 
 2'02 
 
 1-41 
 
 0'I2 
 
 17 ii 
 
 in. 
 
 24-67 
 
 10-74 
 
 2'01 
 
 I- 54 
 
 0'02 
 
 16-46 
 
 Or, for 
 
 
 Si 
 
 & 
 
 R 
 
 H 
 
 
 Si 
 
 ii 
 
 R 
 
 H 
 
 
 I. 
 
 2417 
 
 10-35 
 
 3-62 
 
 16*60 
 
 ( L 
 
 6 99 
 
 3 
 
 1-05 
 
 4'8! 
 
 ) 
 
 11. 
 III. 
 
 24-56 
 24-67 
 
 10-28 
 
 10-74 
 
 3-55 
 3-57 
 
 17-11 
 
 16-46 
 
 Or \ 11. 
 [ III. 
 
 7-17 
 6-89 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 1-04 
 
 I '00 
 
 4'99 
 4-69 
 
 ^=7:3:1 =5 
 
 Si, A\, Q 
 
 IQ 
 
 Corresponding to 3} Si ' 5 ; or 
 
 giving 45-5 Si, 22-31 -Al, 6-93 Ca, 5-76 Na, 19-5 H = 100. The oxygen ratio of R, &, 
 
 Si, H of the Sicilian Herschelite is given as 8 : 3 : i : 5, and it seems, therefore, that our 
 mineral is in this respect more clcsely allied to the phacolite from Leippa, Bohemia, analyzed 
 by Rammelsberg, which has likewise the ratio of 7 : 3 : i : 5, but contains nearly four times 
 as much lime as alkalies. 
 
 I have now to record another discovery of Herschelite, made last year by Mr. Brown's 
 Geological Survey party, in the vesicular basalt from the shaft of the Ballarat and Clunes 
 Gold Mining Company, Clunes. The mineral is here associated with calcite, chabasite, and 
 sometimes mesolite, and occurs in two modifications : i. In very 
 thin hexagonal plates, with the basal edges replaced by very uneven 
 planes of a hexagonal pyramid, similar to p, Fig. 14, of the 
 Richmond Herschelite, but apparently more obtuse, and without 
 any indication of a second pyramid. 2. In double hexagonal pyra- 
 mids, quite similar to the Richmond crystals (Figs. 16 a and 6). 
 I observed one small nearly perfect double crystal of the form 
 represented in Fig. 28, in which the small planes n of a hex- 
 agonal prism, truncating the lateral edges of pyramid r, are quite 
 new.* The terminal planes of the first modification are dull and 
 
 FIG. 28. 
 
 They have also been observed on crystals quite recently found at Richmond. 
 
30 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
 
 roughish ; the terminal points of the second one imperfect, and the pyramidal planes p 
 show a flat re-entering angle, all as mentioned of the Richmond crystals; a tendency to a 
 rosette-like grouping, as the latter show, is, however, entirely absent. 
 
 Of this rather rare zeolite, I discovered, about two years ago, several good specimens in 
 the heap of vesicular basalt from the deep prospecting shaft, sunk close to Degraves' mill, 
 near Kyneton. It occurs in opaque white crystals, up to 3 lines in size, in cavities of 
 the rock, and is generally associated with fine, nearly transparent crystals of chabasite. The 
 characteristic cruciform shape of the crystals is very plain, and exactly resembles the 
 common form of harmatome from St. Andreasberg. A qualitative analysis by Mr. Newbery 
 proved, however, the entire absence of baryta, and presence, in some quantity, of lime 
 instead, the chief point of distinction of Phillipsite from harmatome. 
 
 A second discovery of the mineral was made last year by Mr. Edw. Pittman, in 
 Chambers's basalt quarries at 
 Richmond. It is found there 
 in druses and small aggre- 
 gations of opaque-white, 
 bluish -white, and faintly 
 transparent, and, though 
 more rarely, of quite color- 
 less, nearly limpid crystals, 
 from i to 3 lines in size, 
 associated with herschelite, 
 analcime, and calcite. The 
 cross-form of the compound 
 crystals is far less apparent 
 than on the specimens from 
 
 Kyneton, the re-entering angles of the prisms being, indeed, 
 very small. The crystals look, in fact, to the naked eye, 
 like tetragonal octahedrons in combination with prismatic 
 planes, not unlike some apophyllite (Fig. 29), and only the 
 peculiar striation of the pyramidal planes, which I observed 
 on different specimens, as shown in Figs. 29-32, indicates 
 their compound nature, and the manner of twinning. Of 
 not at all uncommon occurrence are very pretty double crosses 
 of the form Fig. 30, a combination of three twinned crys- 
 tals, perfect at both ends, penetrating each other at right- 
 angles. 
 
 The chemical composition of this Phillipsite is, according to a quantitative analysis by 
 Mr. Edw. Pittman, as follows : 
 
 Si il Ca K Na H 
 
 46-62 23-60 4/48 6-39 5 10 1476 = 100-95 
 
 A comparison of this analysis with those of Phillipsite from European localities shows a 
 considerable difference in the percentages of all components, with the exception of alumina ; 
 the large amount of soda contained in our mineral being especially striking. 
 The oxygen ratios for the different components I find as follows : 
 
 FIG. 29. 
 
 FIG. 30. 
 
 FIG. 31. 
 
 FIG. 32. 
 
 S 
 
 24-86 
 
 Ca 
 1-28 
 
 K 
 
 [09 
 
 ~v 
 
 3-69 
 
 Na 
 
 1*32 
 
 H Si 
 
 13-12; or for 6-78 
 
 R H 
 
 i 3*58; 
 
 which, as regards Si and H, is certainly not very satisfactory. The best course under the 
 
MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 31 
 
 circumstances would perhaps be to take 7 : 3 : I : 3! as the ratios, which would give 
 3 J Si, -R, R, 3! H, and lead to the formula : 
 
 ** . 
 
 .. 
 
 Or, approximately, f | K ) Si 3 + 2 -Al Si 2 + 7 H, 
 
 \ J Na / 
 with the following percentages: 
 
 Si Al Ca K Na H 
 
 47-01 23-06 4-18 7-03 4'6z 14*10 100-00. 
 
 Mr. Rule found this zeolite lately in quartz from the Tiverton Reef, Maldon. It occurs 
 in joints of the quartz in the same manner as it does at Lisle's and Lennox's Reefs, Mount 
 Tarrangower (the only other two places known), viz., in thin drusy coatings of very small, 
 semi-transparent, nearly colorless crystals of the form figured in my former description. 
 
 All the specimens kindly shown me by Mr. Rule exhibit thin tabular crystals of heavy 
 spar grown upon the drusy coatings of this zeolite a no doubt rare association. 
 
 SIP^JB (STJI/PIH^TE OE 
 
 A new (the second) locality of occurrence of this mineral 
 discovered by Mr. Rule is, as jast mentioned, the Tiverton Reef, 
 Maldon. Solitary, thin, blade-like crystals, up to \ inch in 
 length, and \ inch broad, or aggregations of a number of such 
 thin blades, lie flat upon a drusy coating of heulandite covering 
 quartz. The crystals are mostly quite colorless, transparent, 
 and perfectly developed all round, the most modified form being 
 that shown in Fig. 33. A spectrum analysis, kindly conducted 
 by Mr. Ellery, showed but a very faint trace of strontia. 
 
 SEILEHSTITE, GTST:PSTJ:M: (STJ:L:P:H:^TE OF 
 
 To the numerous localities given for this mineral in my former description may be 
 added Schnapper Point, where it occurs frequently in thin seams, and in rather imperfect 
 solitary crystals, some above 6 inches in length, and i inch thick, in the blue tertiary clay 
 along the coast. It has also been observed in lenticular crystals and drusy coatings in the 
 stiff bluish surface clay of Spring Plains. (Geological Survey ^-sheet, 13 N.E.) 
 
 HVEIIRAJBIILITE, GKL^TJIBE:R S-^JLT ( STULFH^.TE OE SOD.A.). 
 
 This salt occurs, according to Mr. Norman Taylor, in fine acicular efflorescences and 
 powdery crusts on the walls of the prospectors tunnel at Barfold or Mitchell's diggings. 
 (Geological Survey i-sheet, 13 S.E.) The tunnel is driven in a white, soft, fine-grained 
 sandstone. 
 
 At a recent visit to Wood's Point I recognized finely crystallized specimens of this 
 mineral in the collection of Mr. Bailey, manager of the South Morning Star Hill Company. 
 It occurs associated with rock crystal and sometimes iron pyrites in fine druses, lining 
 hollows and cracks of the auriferous quartz veins traversing the massive, more or less 
 decomposed, diorite dyke of the Morning Star Hill. Its origin is therefore no doubt mainly 
 due to the decomposition of the hornblendic component of the diorite, whilst from that of 
 the felspathic one (oligoclase) resulted a white clayey mineral (kaolinite) composed of fine 
 
32 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MINERALOGY OF VICTORIA. 
 
 pearly scales, that generally fills the druse cavities of the reefs, covering the other minerals. 
 The crystals of the Brown Spar are from ^ to % inch in diameter, of yellowish-white color, 
 subtransparent, and present all the same form, viz., the obtuse cleavage rhombohedron, the 
 planes quite even and showing a faint pearly lustre, in combination with the terminal plane, 
 which is generally large, and always dull and uneven. Before the blowpipe pieces of the 
 mineral strongly decrepitate, the powder turns brownish-black, but does not become 
 magnetic a proof of there being but little iron present. It is hardly touched by cold acids, 
 but dissolves quickly with strong effervescence in hot muriatic acid, the solution reacting 
 strongly for lime and magnesia. 
 
 Specimens of cellular quartz with vein-like aggregations of Brown Spar in yellowish- 
 brown saddle-shaped rhombohedrons, planes quite dull and rough, have been recently found 
 by Mr. Ferd. Kayser in the New Chum Reef, Sandhurst. 
 
 DOLOMITE ( IMT^GMN-ESI^IN- ILIHMESTOlSrE ). 
 
 Under this designation would, according to a quantitative analysis by Mr. Cosmo 
 Newbery, properly come a band of very hard, so-called " cherty limestone" that occurs with 
 brown hcematite and quartzite underneath the basalt, east of Broadmeadows, on the Moonee 
 Ponds Creek. The analysis shows its composition to be as follows : 
 
 CaC ... ... 54-974 
 
 MgC ... ... ... ... ... 39 >0 7 
 
 Clay,&c. 
 
 99-924 
 
 Trials were at one time made to burn this stone for building material, but gave no favorable 
 results. In the bed of the creek, below the outcrop of the band, occurs a thin deposit of a 
 similar hard rock that encloses truncatella, and is most likely derived from the former. 
 
 C.AJLCITE. 
 
 The rarity of this mineral throughout Victoria generally, and more particularly in the 
 auriferous lodes of the goldfields, renders it perhaps of some interest to notice that in 
 Campbell's Reef, Moyston (Ararat Mining District), it occurs in strong, irregular veins and 
 patches, sometimes impregnated with specks of galena and crystals of iron pyrites (generally 
 cubes and pentagonal dodecahedrons). Gold has, however, not as yet been seen in this 
 manner,* nor have crystallized specimens of the Calcite come under my notice. Calcile is 
 also occasionally found in thin opaque-white veins in the quartz reefs traversing the dyke of 
 the Morning Star Hill and that of the Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock Company's lease, Wood's 
 Point. 
 
 In the basaltic lavas it is not by far so abundant as arragonite. To the localities of 
 occurrence mentioned in the Exhibition Essay of 1867 we can, however, add the basalts of 
 Richmond and Clunes, in which generally light honey-yellow, small, acute rhoml ohedrons 
 at the former place often aggregated to club-like shapes are found associated with the rare 
 species of zeolites previously described. 
 
 Another new locality for Calcite, in veins from i to 2 feet thick, is in the carbonaceous 
 rocks along their junction with the older basalt, at the Moe Swamp, about six miles S.E. of 
 Westbury. 
 
 * It may here not be out of place to remark that most of the rich quartz reefs of Gympie, Queensland, 
 contain abundance of Calcite in strong veins and patches, often richly impregnated with gold. A fine specimen 
 from there, in my possession, .>-hows, besides solitary hackly grains, actual veins of largish gold specks 
 irregularly distributed through white opaque Calcite. 
 
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