THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 67 



South Wales. By Mr. R. Hall. — Birds and eggs, in illustration 

 of his paper. By Mr. G. A. Keartland. — Eggs of Great Palm, 

 Western Black, Banksian Black, Leach's Black, Western Long-bill 

 and Long-bill Cockatoos ; Red-winged Lory ; Yellow-collared, 

 Ground, Blue-banded Grass, Rock, Orange-bellied, and Elegant 

 Grass Parrakeets ; Scaly-breasted Lorrikeet ; and Pied and Red- 

 throated Honey-eaters. By Mr. D. Le Souef. — Skin of White- 

 faced Robin, from Cape York ; eggs of Pied Butcher Bird, from 

 North Queensland. By Mr. F. M. Reader. — Dried specimens 

 of Orchids : Orthoceras strictum, R. Br., and Prasophyllnm, 

 Au8trale, R. Br., from Dimboola, new for North-west Victoria. 

 After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



EXCURSION TO COLLINGWOOD QUARRIES. 

 On 17 th July, about a dozen members and friends attended the 

 Club excursion to the Collingwood quarries. These extensive 

 quarries belong to the Melbourne corporation, and the material 

 from them is used for macadamizing the roads. The rock, a fine- 

 grained basalt, is generally spoken of as " Milestone," and forms 

 a part of an extensive series of flows which border Melbourne on 

 the north and west. The rock has been removed to a depth of 

 120 ft. over a large area, so that the excavation is rather an 

 imposing one. On the southern side of the quarry the bottom of 

 the flow has been reached, and the old land surface has been 

 exposed, but to the north of this a further excavation of about 

 30 ft. has not yet pierced the basalt, so that the old surface 

 was very uneven. The former soil, where exposed, is very sandy, 

 and of a dark, almost black colour. It contains fragments of 

 wood, but nothing identifiable was found. As is usual in black 

 sands and clays of this nature, iron pyrites is found in fair quan- 

 tity, the sulphur of the pyrites being derived from the organic 

 matter in the soil. The percolation of rain water through this 

 deposit has in part oxidized the pyrites, and we have thus formed 

 a basic sulphate of iron, known as copiapite, which forms pale 

 yellow patches through the dark soil. In other places the oxida- 

 tion has proceeded still further, and bright red stains of iron rust 

 are deposited by the little runnels of water. 



To geologists, however, perhaps the chief point of interest in 

 the quarry is the zeolites which occur in the cavities of the basalt, 

 for there appears to be no locality anywhere where finer crystals 

 of these beautiful minerals can be obtained. Beautiful as they 

 are, they are but decomposition products of the original minerals 

 contained in the basalt. Without going too deeply into the 

 matter, basalt may be looked at as composed in the main of two 

 distinct minerals, which are felted together to form a tough rock. 

 These two minerals are a dark ore known as augite, and a paler 

 one, usually in long needle-like crystals, known as felspar. Now 



