Miscellaneous. 143 
divested of all its bark and leaves, which lay across my track. It 
had been sharply broken about five or six feet from the ground, 
through its base, which was three or four feet in diameter. I won- 
dered what could have broken so huge a tree in so sharp a manner, 
as it had not the appearance of having been struck by lightning. 
I dismounted to examine it, and found a great bruise in the trunk. 
I proceeded to search the locality, and about fifty or sixty yards 
away saw something which appeared like a large cannon-ball. My 
surprise was great, believing that no artillery of such a calibre had 
ever been so far inland. On inspection it proved to be an Aérolite. 
It was of a dark metallic colour, extremely hard, and about ten 
inches in diameter ; in fact, it very closely resembled a ten-inch 
shot, and was about the same weight. It was perfectly round, 
except that one side was slightly flattened ; its surface was ex- 
tremely smooth, and very slightly perforated. The extraordinary 
appearance of the tree was now clearly accounted for in my mind ; 
it must have been struck by the Aérolite on its downward passage 
to the earth. I regret that my limited means of transit did not permit 
me to bring this extraordinary phenomenon to Brisbane for this 
society ; but my next visit may enable me to do so, as I have planted 
it for that purpose. 
‘The following day I came upon a complete petrified forest, which 
I found, by the time I got through it, to be nearly sixty miles in 
extent. I have traced whole trees fifty or sixty feet in length through 
this forest, with their limbs and branches perfectly visible, and their 
trunks varying from twelve to twenty inches in diameter, imbedded 
in the shale and sandstone formation peculiar to this district. 
Although these fossil trees are completely silicified, they still pre- 
serve their original appearance, except that many of them-are some- 
what flattened, the result of the pressure which they have sustained. 
The living trees of this part are chiefly -bricklow, myall, sandal- 
wood, ironbark, and a variety of other hard woods.’-— Queensland 
Daily Guardian, 16th February. 
Toe Nepurite or New ZraLranp.—Professor Hochstetter com- 
municated the following to the Vienna Imperial Academy of Sciences 
on May 12th :—This mineral, held in high esteem among the natives 
ag a material for weapons, tools, and various ornamental objects, 
occurs exclusively on the west coast of the South Island, which is 
called ‘Te Wahi Pooramoo,’ signifying ‘the place of the green stone.’ 
It appears generally in the form of pebbles in river-beds and on the 
sea-shore ; it is, however, said to occur also in masses in the vicinity 
of considerable veins of serpentine. The natives distinguish by 
name a great number of varieties, different in hardness, colour, and 
translucence, which may be distributed in two groups :—A. Of 
intense green (generally leek-green), more or less translucent, with a 
hardness between that of felspar and quartz; compact, not schistose. 
B. Of less value than the former ; this is analogous in physical pro- 
perties and chemical composition to M. Damour’s ‘Jade blane,’ from 
we East, represented by the formula RS (proportion of oxygen= 
22) and probably belonging to the family of the Amphiboles. 
