Proceedings, b^c, ix 



one of them, in the shape of .1 neatly wronght and polished horse 

 shoe, had been placed in the exhil)ition held in ^Melbonrne in 1854, 

 anticipatory of the Fcench international exhibition of the following 

 year, and which specimen he Jiow produced. His attention had been 

 called to the subject whilst acting as a delegate of the City of Mel- 

 bourne in a conference respecting the desirability of constructing a 

 railway from ^Melbourne to the reputed coal-fields of Cape Patterson. 

 Portions of these metallic masses had been brought up by !Mr. Ca- 

 meron, a resident at Cranbourne, a district through Which the railway, 

 if constructed, would pass, and who believed the deposits in question 

 to be portion of a series of stratum extending through the locality 

 for a distance of some five miles, in sufficient cpiantity to constitute 

 one of the commercial inducements to the formation of a railway. 



To satisfy himself on this point the exhibitor had visited Cran- 

 bourne, and found that whilst the outlying rocks of the district were 

 ferruginous, the deposits of apparently pure iron existing there, to 

 some extent in situ, were only two : — 



1st. A niass lying on the land of a Mr. McKay, on Section 39, 

 parish of Sherwood, distant aliout three and a half miles in a south- 

 erly direction from the township of Cranbourne. It presents a tabular 

 face nearly level with the surfiice of the land, and somewhat of a 

 triangular shape, the edges measuring respectively about 31, 33, and 

 38 inches. A trench excavated around it has revealed its sides to 

 an average depth of about 30 inches, the bulk of the mass becoming 

 greater as the depth increases, inducing a belief that the weight of 

 the portion visible amounts to about four tons. The upper surface 

 is studded with apparently oxidised blisters, which are easily de- 

 tached in scales, and v/hich in some instances contain a non-magnetic 

 metallic substance a})proaching to the character of black lead. The 

 sides are thickly oxidised, the coat being in some places nearly half 

 an inch in thickness, and mixed with the contiguous earth with wliich 

 it is found in close adhesion. 



2nd. A mass similarly bedded in land belonging to a Mr. Lane- 

 ham, section 39, parish of Cranbourne, distant about two miles east- 

 ward from the township, and about four miles north-eastward from 

 the mass just described, .similar to it in its general characteristics, 

 but apparently not more than one half of its bulk. 



He had also obtained, and now exhibited, a portion of a third and 

 very much smaller deposit of a similar description, which had been 

 found in the .same neighbourhood, and which weighed about twelve 

 or fifteen pounds. The portion exhibited formed about one-half of the 

 mass, but was not in its normal state ; the block had been used for 

 some years as an andiron on the hearth of a farm-house, and had its 

 surface affected by the action of the fire, and to some extent impreg- 

 nated with foreign .substances. Whilst so used it had got liroken 

 into nearly equal parts — that now jtroduced, and another which had 

 been lost. 



