364 Report of the Voyage of Discovery 
The environs of Port Praslin, in New-Ireland, have fur-. 
nished seven specimens of a recent madreporitic calcareous 
rock, similar to that which appears in the formation of nearly 
all the isles of the Pacific. 
At the island of Waigiou, near the land of the Papous, 
M. Lesson collected twenty-one varieties of serpentine rocks 
which abound on this spot. 
At the Moluccas, the island of Borou furnished six specimens 
of phylladiform talcite, both carboniferous and quartziferous ; 
and the island of Amboyna afforded four of recent madreporitic 
calcareous specimens. The specimens collected as well in the 
countries near Port Jackson as in the Blue Mountains, very 
much increase our knowledge respecting these parts of New- 
Holland. The specimens, to the number of seventy, offer us: 
1. the granites, the quartziferous syenites, and the pegmatites, 
which form the second plane of the Blue Mountains; 2. 
the ferruginous freestones, containing abundant Jaminze of 
specular iron, which cover not only a vast extent of country 
near the coasts, but also the first plane of the Blue Mountains ; 
and, 3dly, the stratiform lignite which is worked at Mount- 
York, at 1000 feet above the level of the sea, and the presence 
of which adds to the reasons, which lead us to think that the 
ferruginous freestones of these countries belong to the tertiary 
formation. 
Twenty-five specimens collected in Van Diemen’s Land, in 
the neighbourhood of Port Dalrymple, and near to Cape 
Barren, indicate: Ist, pegmatitic and serpentine districts; 
2nd, intermediary shelly formatious, formed of the schis- 
toid grau-wacké, and of calcareous stone; 3rd, very recent 
districts, composed of sandy and ferruginous clay, with geodes 
of hydrated iron, and fossil wood in different states. - There 
are also fine white and blueish topazes amongst the quartzose 
pebbles collected at Cape Barren. Eight specimens from 
New Zealand, present: Ist, a beautiful variety of obsidian ; 
2d, scaly basalt passing into phonolite ; and 3d, a bright-red 
tufa, similar to that which appears in so conspicuous a manner 
in the volcanic mountains of Mezin in France, and in the Giants’ 
Causeway in Ireland. The natives use it to paint their bodies ; 
they also use it to colour their canoes. Finally, the other speci- 
mens are volcanic products from the Isle of France, Saint He- 
lena, and Ascension. ‘The rocks of Saint Helena consist of 
trachytic porphyries; those of Ascension are basaltic, with the 
exception of a beautiful variety of greenish obsidian, which is 
chatoyant, like that of Peru. 
It appears from these details, that the geological collections 
of M. Lesson assist in completing the data which we already 
possess 
