132 ON THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF KILKIVAN ; 
and almost in atrue north direction. Immediately beneath 
the opening the reef measures 21 feet 8 inches in thickness, 
dipping heavily to the west. The tunnel which has been 
driven has been begun on the top of the reef in a partially 
decomposed very soft serpentine rock, and dips two in 
three, 7.e., at an angle of about 34 degrees. The top of the 
reef is not closely followed, however, but is evidently lost 
after going a few feet, the rope wearing a projection of 
it toa fine polish of a beautiful blue colour and metallic 
lustre. This is 10 or 12 feet in from the outcrop ; but at 12 
yards in, an offshoot, several feet in thickness, is cut, and at 
18 yards another such offshoot is reached. At 28 yards, 
driving has been stopped in the westerly direction, and a 
backset begun in a south-easterly one at an angle dipping 
very little from the horizontal, and in this excavation the 
two offshoots mentioned above are cut through; whilst at 12 
yards the main lode, or what appears to be the main lode, 
is intersected and carries very good mineral. (A sample 
of this, broken off at the face, was shown at the 
meeting.) 
It must not be supposed, however, that the whole 21 feet 
of reef is constituted on a par with this particular sample ; 
it would be contrary to the known composition of lodes 
generally, and especially those of great thickness, which, 
though carrying valuable, precious, or useful ores of metals, 
these are rarely the unaccompanied occupants of them. The 
other chief components, however, being of commercial value, 
particularly the nickel, this thickness will not be so much 
of a bar to profitable working as it must be in cases where 
the “gangue ” is valueless. And when it is remembered 
that the veins of cobalt ore hitherto discovered and worked 
are very thin, and that the supply being limited there has. 
been no inducement to find out other applications for it in 
the arts, it may readily be surmised that the discovery is 
expected to effect a very considerable change, both in the 
supply of raw material and in the application of the purified 
article to the various arts of civilised life. The difficulty of 
extraction, however, may be a bar to the application of 
scientific chemistry on the spot, and the refractory ore may 
even require to be sent abroad for manipulation, but with a 
railway to the mines and with this unusually large supply 
