PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 59 
examination, as follows {and as most of the remarks are on the subject 
of chemistry, these are omitted from the ‘M. M. J.’—Ep.}: 
A careful microscopic examination revealed only the lower animal 
forms usually present in fresh water. 
There is an absence of diatoms and other vegetable forms, which 
is peculiar. 
The water was filtered off and examined chemically. The only 
noticeable feature was the presence of an unusually large quantity of 
ammonia. 
Mr. Attwood presented to the Society four slides, with the state- 
ment that the alluvial gold marked ‘No. 1,” from Sea margin, Otago, 
New Zealand, very closely resembles that which he had examined 
from this coast, the gold presénting the same scaly and laminated 
character, with a beautiful, clean and bright surface, rendering it so 
easily acted upon by mercury, and apparently so well fitted for 
amalgamation. No. 2. Section of Smaragdite rock from Gilroy: 
an exceedingly beautiful section, the smaragdite forming a compact 
matrix, in which crystals of garnet are porphyritically enclosed. 
No. 3. Section of Smaragdite rock from Bavaria. No. 4. A section 
of trachytic greenstone from the C. & C. Shaft, Virginia City. It 
is the same character of rock as that met with in No. 4 Shaft, Sutro 
Tunnel, the smaragdite having small particles of magnetite im- 
bedded in it. 
Mr. Attwood also exhibited nineteen specimens of alluvial gold 
from New. Zealand, which had been presented to him by Dr. 
Hector, Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand. Small 
portions of each specimen were mounted on slides for microscopic 
examination, and were from the following localities :—No. 40. Torrent 
washed, Otago. No. 14. Lake margin, Otago. No. 16. Sea margin 
with iron sand, Otago. No. 3. Tertiary sea beach, Nelson. No. 39. 
Tertiary lake beaches, Otago. No. 17. Tertiary river terraces, Otago. 
No. 83. Re-wash of river terraces by sea, Otago. No. 29. Re-wash of 
lake beach by sea, Otago. No. 23. Re-wash of lake or stream gold, 
Otago. No. 34. Older gold drift of Otago: Eocene. No. 8. Older 
gold drift of Westland, Pliocene, 130 feet below the sea. No. 6. 
Ditto, 1700 feet above the sea. No. 15. Torrent-bed in mesozoic rocks. 
No. 2. From old conglomerate (cretaceous age) coal-measures, West- 
land. No. 21. Creek placers. No. 2. Silurian. No. 4. Devonian. 
No. 3. Hydraulic sluicing of gravels in base of mountains. A. Native 
crystals of gold alluvial from mica schist. 
Dr. Harkness sent the Society some leaves with a fungus found on 
them, and also a slide, mounted by him, with spores of the same, 
which was accompanied by the following paper : 
T have to-day sent you, for the Society’s cabinet, a slide—No. 283 
—together with some willow leaves infested with a fungus. These 
diseased leaves are found at the present time in the greatest pro- 
fusion upon the willows skirting the Sacramento River. You will 
observe that the fungus appears both upon the upper and under 
surfaces of the leaves, in bright yellow heaps (sori), which are 
