106 REPORT — 1861. 



about 80 millions of tons of coals annually (a prodigious recent increase, and daily 

 augmentinor). Of iron-ore we raise and smelt upwards of 8 millions of tons, pro- 

 ducing 3,826,000 tons of pig iron. Of copper-ore we raise Irom oiu- own mines 

 236,696 tons, which jaelcl 15,968 tons of metallic copper ; and from our native 

 metallic minerals we obtain — of tin, 6695 tons ; of lead, 63,525 tons ; and of zinc, 

 4357 tons. The total annual value of our minerals and coals is estimated at 

 £26,99-3,573, and of that of the metals (the produce of the above minerals) and 

 coals at £37,121,318. 



"When we turn from the consideration of the home-sim^ey to that of the geolo- 

 gical surveys in the numerous colonies of Great Britain, I may well reflect with 

 pleasure on the fact that nearly all the leaders of the latter have been connected 

 with, or have gone out from, om* home Geological Sui'vey and the Govemment 

 School of Mines. 



Such were the relations to us of Sir WiUiam Logan in Canada, of Professor 

 Oldham in India, with several of his assistants, of Selwyn in A'ictoria, of my young 

 friend Goidd in Tasmania, as well as of Wall in Trinidad ; whilst BaiTett in Jamaica 

 is a worthy pupil of Professor Sedgwick. Passing over the many interesting 

 residts which have arisen out of the examination of these distant lands, we cannot 

 but be struck with the fact, that whilst Ilindostan (with the exception of the 

 higher Himalayan mountains) differs so materially in its structiu'o and fossU 

 contents from Em-ope, Australia (particidaily ^"ictoria) presents, in its palaeozoic 

 rocks at least, a close analogy to Britain. Thanks to the ability and zeal of 

 Ml". Selwyn, a large portion of this great auriferous colony has been already surveyed 

 and mapped out in the clearest manner. In doing this he has demonstrated that 

 the productive quartzose veinstones, which ai-e the chief matrix of gold, are mainly 

 subordinate to the Lower Silurian slaty rocks, charged with Trilobites and Grapto- 

 lites, and peneti-ated by granite, syenite, and volcanic rocks, occupying vast regions, 

 Mr. Selwyn, aided in the palajontology of his large subject by Prof. M'Coy, has 

 also shown how these original aiuiferous rocks have been worn down at succes- 

 sive periods, one of which abrasions is of pliocene age, another of post-pliocene, and 

 a third the result of existing causes. All these distinctions, as well as the demtar- 

 cation of the Carboniferous, Oolitic, and other rocks, are cleaily set forth. Looking 

 with admiration at the execution of these geological maps, it was with exceeding 

 pain I learnt that some members of the Leglslatm-e of Victoria had threatened to 

 curtail their cost, if not to stop thefr production. As such ill-timed economy woidd 

 occasion serious regret among all men of science, and would, I know, be also deeply 

 lamented by the enlightened Governor, Sir Iloniy Barkly, and would at the same 

 time be of lasting dissei-vice to the material advancement of knowledge among the 

 mining classes of the State, let us earnestly hope that the yoimg House of Parlia- 

 ment at Melbourne may not be led to enact such a measm-e. 



Whilst upon the gi-eat subject of Australian geology, I cannot avoid touching on 

 a qt((estio vex ata -which, has arisen in respect to the age of the coal-fields of that vast 

 mass of land. Judging by the fossil plants fi'om some of the Carboniferous deposits 

 of Mctoria, Prof. M'Coy has considered these coaly deposits to be of the Oolitic or 

 Jm-assic age, whilst the experienced geologist of New South Wales, the Hev. W. 

 B. Clarke, seeing that, where he has examined these deposits, some of their plants 

 are like those of the old coal, and that the beds repose confonnably upon and pass 

 down into sti-ata with true Moimtain-limestono fossils, holds the opinion that the 

 coal is of palaeozoic age. As Mr. Clai'ke, after citing a case where the coal-seams 

 and plants were reached below Moimtain-limestone fossils, expresses a hope that 

 Mr. Goidd may detect in Tasmania some data to aid in deteniiining this question, 

 I take this opportunity of stating that I will lay before this Meeting a communica- 

 tion I have just received from Mr. Gould, in which he says that in coal-fields of the 

 rivers Mersey and Don (some of the veiy few which are worked in Tasmania), he 

 has convinced himself that the coal imderlies beds containing specimens of true 

 old Carboniferous fossils. Remarking that these relations are so far unlike those 

 which he observed on the eastern coast of the island, where the coal overlies, yet 

 is confonnable to, the Carboniferous limestone, he adds that in Tasmania, at least, 

 the coal most worked is unquestionably of palaeozoic age. 



Now, as Australia is so vast a region, may not much of the coal within it be of 

 the age assigned to it by Mr. Clarke 5 and yet, may not Prof. M'Coy bo also light 



