94 THE MINERALS OF TASMANIA. 



Arthur River ; Dial Range ; Mt. Lyell ; Red 

 Hills; Mts. Owen, Jukes, and Darwin; and 

 many other places. 



(3) Micaceous. 



Of minute scaly structure. White River, in 

 quartz ; Mt. Read ; Macquarie Harbour ; Pie- 

 man River ; Dundas ; Mt. Heemskirk ; Mt. 

 Lyell, where it is in part highly auriferous. 

 At this locality a variety occurs in minute crys- 

 tals, forming a black powder, which is reported, 

 to be also auriferous; assays have been made 

 up to 15 ozs. of gold per ton of material ; at the 

 Black Bluff, Middlesex, it occurs highly aurifer- 

 ous. Common in the schist regions of west and 

 south-west Tasmania. 



(4) Reddle. — Red ochre or earthy oxide. 



This variety commonly occurs with the other 

 forms from which it is disintegrated ; it is often 

 impure by admixture with earthy matter. 

 Occurs in considerable abundance at many 

 places on the West Tamar and along the north- 

 west portion of the island; Flinders Island; 

 Mt. Lyell, where it is often intimately mixed 

 with powdery barite, in which state it has been 

 termed " volcanic mud '' ; and '' crocus " ; at 

 this locality it often contains free gold. 



It has been stated ( ' Tasmania and its Mineral 

 Resources, 1888 ") that " early in the century Lieut.- 

 Governor Collins forwarded a quantity of the ore to Eng- 

 land, but without practical results, though Mr. Commis- 

 sioner Bigge subsequently stated in his report on the trade 

 and agriculture of New South Wales (of which this colony 

 was then a dependency) that analysis made in England 

 proved it ' to consist of pure protoxide of iron, similar 

 to the black ore of Sweden, and furnishing a very pure and 

 malleable metal.' " Surveyor-General Evans states (" A 

 Geographical, Historical, and Topographical Description 

 of Van Diemen's Land, 1822 ") : " Within a few miles of 

 Launceston there is a most surprising abundance of iron. 

 Literally speaking, there are entire mountains of the ore, 

 which is so remarkably rich that it has been found to 

 yield 70 per cent, of pure metal." 



