38 Proccf'd'nnjs of tlie Royal Society of Victoria.. 



cause will Ije found in the scouring action of the wind-blown 

 sand, wliich no doubt exerts extensive corroding influences in 

 those parts. 



An important fact in connection with the occurrence of 

 obsidiauites is their wide distribution, and, if their origin is 

 limited to one point of eruption, it will be evident that some 

 most extraordinary agent must have been employed to spread 

 them over so immense an area. An idea of this may be gained 

 when it is realised that these objects have been reported at 

 Albany in the west and Uralla in the east, or almost at the 

 limits of the continent in those directions. In the north they 

 are recorded from the McDonnell Ranges, and in the south they 

 have been found in various parts of Tasmania. Within these 

 limits their occuri-ence is reported from many parts. In West 

 Australia, since the discovery of the goldfields, they appear to 

 have been found plentifully scattered over the surface ai^d in the 

 alluvial of Coolgardie and surrounding districts. Victor Streich^ 

 says they have been collected at Mount Squires, the Eraser 

 Range, in the sandhills of the Great Victorian Desert, and at 

 the Birksgate Range. 



According to Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, Government Geologist of 

 South Australia, they occur similarly over the province, more 

 especially in the far north, and Messrs. Tate and Watt found 

 numerous specimens between the Stevenson River and Charlotte 

 Waters. Professor Tate'^ mentions that he has seen a specimen 

 obtained at Gawler, from the centre of a nodule of travertine ; 

 and several that were collected about Stuart's Creek, and one 

 from King George's Sound. Pitchstone and obsidian bombs are 

 said by Mr. J. Chandler,'^ of the Peake, to be plentiful on the 

 plains, and Mr. Canham,'^ of Stuart's Creek, reports similar 

 specimens. The hollow specimen described by Stelzner is said 

 to have come from Kangaroo Island. Clarke's record^ of their 

 occurrence at the Wannon appears to have been the first in 

 Victoria. In the south-west district of this Colony many have 

 l>een found, as at Mounts Elephant and Eccles. They are 



1 Trans. Royal Soc. S. Aust., vol. xvi. (1S93), pp. 84, 04. 

 ■i Trans. Philosoph. Soc. Adelaide, S. Aust, vol. ii. (1879), p. 70. 

 - Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. iv. (1880-81), pp. 14S, 149. 

 ^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xiii, 1857, p. 18S. 



