BY THE REV. W. B. CLABKE, M.A., F.Q.S., &c. 291 



Those who adhere to what I believe to be a fiction, viz., the 

 origin of gold deposits from fusion, may be startled by a fact 

 reported recently by Mr. Blake of California, that he found a 

 crystal of calcite (Calc spar) having through it a wire of native 

 gold. 



In the last edition of LyelTs Elements of Geology, published 

 in January last (and which I received after I had prepared 

 the materials for this paper), I am glad to find that he 

 quotes some of the same facts which I have quoted to-night- 

 One passage from this new edition of an important work, will 

 show more fully how much the author of it coincides in the views 

 I have just expressed : viz., that from the bottom of p. 733 to 

 middle of p. 734. 



Referring to the prismatic structure of rocks, I must now 

 exhibit a singular column from the lower Carboniferous formation 

 at Colo Colo, on the Paterson River, transmuted in this way by 

 porphyry. Fossils occur outside this prism as on the outside of 

 the balls from Jervis Bay. 



Here is, however, a far more striking instance of this struc- 

 ture in another specimen of fossiliferous calcareous grit, of 

 Secondary age, from Bramston Range, on the Flinders River, 

 which was brought away by Mr. James Atkinson, of Oldbury, 

 near Berrima. 



I saw another about six weeks ago at the house of his 

 compagnon de voyage, Mr. Burke, at Mittagong. In each instance 

 the sides of the columns, which are separated or united by cal- 

 careous spar, exhibit the fossils of the formation in good preser- 

 vation, but assuredly under circumstances which could not have 

 existed when the rock was first deposited. 



I may now approach the subject of transmutations in our own 

 vicinity. 



The upper beds of rock in the counties of Cumberland and 

 Camden consist of a series which I long ago denominated the 

 Wianamatta beds, and this designation is now adopted by the 

 geologists of Europe. They consist of shales, calcareous grit and 

 sandstone, with carbonaceous layers and casts of wood and a good 

 deal of iron. These beds are frequently traversed by dykes and 

 bosses of basalt, which have passed through the underlying 



