BY I'KOI'KSSOK Sill T. \V. K. DAVID. K.B.E., KTC. 121 



he thought to be a shell, just exposed to view by the water 

 jet. He immediately went forward, and picked it out of 

 its matrix, to which it was slightly adherent. In doing so, 

 a small piece fell off. This has not been preserved. He 

 called to Mr. H. Harvey, the Government inspector of the 

 Mount Cameron water race, who was close by in the mine at 

 the time, and who informed the writer (last February) that, 

 on hurrying to the spot, he carefully examined the site from 

 which the flake had been picked by Mr. Richards, and dis- 

 tinctly recalled the fact that he noticed at the time of the 

 discovery that there was a well marked impression in the 

 old drift, into which the flake exactly fitted, and from which 

 it had been lifted out by Mr. Richards. 



Mr. Murray, a son of a late Government Geologist of 

 Victoria, Reginald Murray, and a pai-tner of Mr. Richards, 

 quite confirms the account originally given by Mr. Richards 

 to Mr. Twelvetrees, and also that now given by Mr. Harvey. 

 They all agree that there is not the slightest possibility of 

 the flake having fallen from above and having been driven 

 by the water from the hydraulic nozzle into the compact 

 drift. The extreme freshness of the chalcedony considered 

 as a mineral specimen (that is, the remarkable absence of 

 weathering) made the writer seriously consider at first the 

 possibility of the flake having been artificially injected, in 

 the manner indicated above, into the drift overlying the 

 stream tin, but ho is quite satisfied that some other explana- 

 tion must be found for its extraordinarily fresh state of 

 preservation. He thinks it is to be attributed to the inter- 

 stitial peaty clay in the sand having stopped all water cir- 

 culation and also prevented contact with the air, and so 

 checked weathering. At the same time, the "retouching" 

 on the edges of the flake suggests to him a more modern 

 phase of artefact evolution than that indicated by the 

 specimens about to be described, from a more recent deposit. 



The following is a general section at the old Doone 

 Mine southwards to the present channel of the Ringarooma 

 River: — 



Surface level, about 100 feet above sea. 



6in. Peaty humus covered with grass 



6in. Grey sand. 



Gin. Peaty sand. 



4in. Grey sand. 



lOin. Hard ochreous sandy silt. 



