Norman Taylor — The Cudgegong Diamond Field. 451 



the manganese in dendritic markings, or as if smoked, and soiling 

 the fingers when rubbed; a white siliceous cement, sometimes 

 coloured apple-green by silicate of iron (probably derived from the 

 veins of green clay, mentioned before as occurring in the joints of 

 the basalt) ; ] quartzite; white, grey, and black flints and slates, the 

 latter showing oblique lamination, and reticulated with veins of 

 white quartz, and passing into a breccia ; a greenish silico-felspathic 

 rock or felstone, weathering yellowish-white to a depth of an inch 

 or more, and ringing, when struck, with a metallic sound, and 

 generally sculptured into curious forms ; hard altered siliceous sand- 

 stone; schorl rock (a quartzite with nests of schorl); a peculiar hard 

 white stratified rock, with flattened annular concretions, having 

 depressed centres, very numerous on the bedding planes ; black or 

 smoky quartz, sometimes inclosing felspar ; orthoclase in waterworn 

 crystals; double hexagonal pyramids of quartz, occasionally rounded ; 

 bluish opaline quartz in pieces about the size of a pea, showing, 

 when wetted, a yellow ray; amethystine quartz; silicified wood and 

 wood opal ; jasper (occurring also in the form of beans, since called 

 by the Bingera miners " morlops "), which the miners suppose to 

 be an unerring indication of the presence of the diamond, for what 

 reason they could not themselves explain ; agates, generally of inferior 

 quality and colour ; carnelian; chalcedony; tourmaline in rounded 

 crj^stals ; common corundum or adamantine spar, in flattish pieces 

 showing distinct cleavage planes; black corundum ; blue, yellow, and 

 green sapphire, occasionally double-coloured, in flat plates and 

 rounded crystals ; olivine (?) ; white and brown zircons in rounded 

 crystals and as a fine sparkling heavy sand ; large quantities of brown 

 and greenish-black rounded pieces of pleonaste ; thin lenticular 

 plates of pink and violet ruby ; white, yellow, and pale - blue 

 crystallized and rounded topaz, generally of a larger size than any 

 of the other gems, and showing distinct cleavage planes ; beryl (?) ; 

 a new variety of corundum in rounded opaque grey six-sided prisms, 

 tapering towards one end ; brookite in flat plates ; titanic iron, and 

 probably chromite ; magnetic iron, sometimes in quantity ; and 

 lastly a jet-black glistening vesicular variety of pleonaste, in flattish 

 conchoidal grains, exceedingly hard, and cutting glass nearly as well 

 as the diamond, the vesicles being filled with a magnesian clay. 

 Wood tin occurs also rarely, and fragments of brown ferruginous 

 wood have been detected in the cement. 



The newer drift, derived from the above, is composed of the same 

 contents as the older drift, with the addition of boulders of green- 

 stone and basalt. Semi-angular blocks of the metamorphic rocks 

 occur, as also the white kaolinic clay from which the magnesite 

 already mentioned is produced. Osmiridium has been found in 

 minute silvery scales after amalgamating the gold. A noticeable 

 feature in this drift is the quantity of small pebbles of flesh-coloured 

 quartz, derived. I believe, from the Carboniferous conglomerates. 



1 The pebbles from these cements have sometimes a very peculiar resinous glaze 

 on their surfaces, which is certainly not clue to friction, as the cavities are equally 

 glazed as the exposed surfaces. It is probably siliceous. 



