Cox.—On the Mineralogy of New Zealand. » 485 
Mr. Skey has also examined many of our wads for Cobalt, but has only 
recognized that metal in a bog ore from Rapaka, Bay of Islands, where, 
however, it only occurred in minute quantities (18th Mus. and Lab. Rept., p. 
27), and I also found traces of the mineral in some of the Kawau manganese 
ores (14th Lab. Rept., p. 88). Hitherto ores of this metal have not been 
found in New Zealand in payable quantities. 
NiIckEL. 
This metal while being somewhat widely. distributed in New Zealand, 
has not hitherto beén found under circumstances which would render its 
extraction remunerative. 
Pimelite, 241 Si + 8 Mg Si + 10H, in which 8 per cent. of nickel oxide 
is known to occur, was first discovered in New Zealand by Dr. Haast, filling 
cavities in the amygdaloidal rocks of the Malvern and Clent Hills, and 
is mentioned in the Jurors’ Rep. N.Z. Ex., 1865, p. 257. I cannot find 
any analysis of these specimens, so am unable to quote the percentage of 
Nickel present in them. 
Troilite or Pyrrhotine (magnetic pyrites), Fe’.—This mineral, which is an 
inferior sulphide of iron, usually contains as a constituent portion of it both 
copper and nickel, and it is from the nickeliferous varieties of this mineral 
that the larger proportion of our commercial nickel is derived. I first dis- 
covered this mineral in January, 1876, in the river-beds south of Mount 
Cook on the West Coast of the South Island, and several specimens which I 
brought from localities some distance apart were found by Mr. Skey to con- 
tain Nickel although not in payable quantities. Specimens were subsequently 
forwarded from the Paringa River in the same district by Messrs. Thos. 
Ward and Co. 
Pyrrhotine was again noticed in a series of specimens forwarded by Mr. 
W. Docherty, from Dusky Sound, in 1877, where it occurs in association 
with copper pyrites. Several of these specimens were tested for Nickel, 
in all of which it was shown to occur, but only in small quantities, the 
largest yield of this metal obtained being °68 per cent., a return far too low 
to allow of remunerative extraction. 
During the same year Mr. H. Washbourn forwarded a specimen of Pyr- 
thotine from Collingwood, where it occurs in a reef on the mineral lease of 
the Richmond Hill Silver Mining Company, and when examined for Nickel 
it yielded 2-98 per cent. of this metal, and traces of Cobalt. As Nickel 
is extracted from this ore in New Jersey, U.S., when only 3 per cent. is 
Present, this should prove payable if the nde'ts continuous and sufficiently : 
large. 
Silicate of Nickel.—In the Trans. NZ. Ina a pA MF. 
Pond mentions the occurrence of Nickel in 
natn fn Se Anan inti, wih wenn low 
