Notice of Minerals from New Holland. 157 



Art, XX. — Notice of Minerals from New Holland ; by 

 F. Alger. 



Read before the Boston Society of Natural History, June 4, 1840. 



For thg^ minerals of which I propose to offer a brief notice on 

 the present occasion, I am indebted to John Eldridge, Esq., of 

 Yarmouth, Mass., who very hberally permitted me to select them 

 from a collection purchased by him several years since, while on 

 a visit to Calcutta, to which city they had recently been brought 

 as "curiosities," by a person from the coast of New Holland. 

 Their exact locality it is not in the power of Mr. E. to give me, 

 a circumstance to be regretted, as the information would give ad- 

 ditional interest to the specimens, by directing future discoverers 

 to the spot where others of still greater interest might probably 

 be met with. They comprise several species of the genus Kou- 

 phone-Spar, with varieties of rhombohedral and uncleavable 

 quartz of Prof. Mohs. Their uniform gangue is amygdaloidal 

 trap, to which they are attached in geodes, or groups of implanted 

 crystals, or in compact nodules filling up the cavities of the rock. 



This trap is exactly similar to that brought from Ireland, the 

 Hebrides, and the Ferroe islands. There are a few masses of a 

 more compact character among the collection, giving evidence of 

 the contiguous occurrence of genuine basalt ; thus offering a new 

 object of interest, which we hope will induce some enterprising 

 naturalist to explore this region, now that the facilities of com- 

 munication with it have so much increased. Less is known of 

 its mineralogical productions than of any other department of its 

 natural history, though the public has been favored with the jour- 

 nals of several scientific expeditions to Australia. These works 

 I have consulted with the view of finding the probable locality 

 of the minerals now referred to, and I have thus obtained infor- 

 mation which applies to a few of them. I find mention of both 

 amygdaloid and basalt in the interior, as well as upon the sea 

 coast; but these rocks are spoken of only as affording remarka- 

 ble picturesque or geological scenery, and not in reference to their 

 contained minerals. Among the specimens brought home by 

 Capt. King, who made a survey of the western coast of Australia 

 between the years 1818 and 1822, were agate, jasper, carnelian, 

 green chalcedony, and heliotrope, bearing with them portions of 



