68 Report on the Exhibition of Gems. 



as the repository of the diamond." It must be remembered 

 that he mentions — and our own experience confirms it — that 

 the formation in which the blue topaz occurs is quite dif- 

 ferent from that in which the yellow topaz is found. I am 

 not aware that one yellow topaz has yet been found, while 

 we have discovered blue oaes equal to the finest known 

 specimens fi:om other countries. This leads me to point 

 attention to the fact, well known in Brazil, that wherever 

 the blue topaz is found there also the diamond may be 

 looked for. Mr. Turner's collection, in which were some 

 good small blue topazes from Beechworth, confirms the state- 

 ment of Mawe. — It may not be out of place here to say that 

 I look forward with some anxiety and much hope to the day 

 when the labours of the geological department, so well and 

 so carefully carried out in other districts, shall be extended 

 to those where the diamond has been found. And if I might 

 do so without offence, I would take this opportunity, while 

 the interest raised by the late exhibition is still fresh in the 

 minds of those most interested, to hint that the special 

 examination of these districts about Beechworth should 

 receive the earliest possible attention of the Geological De- 

 partment ; for it is not by individual labour, but only by the 

 careful examinations of a staff* from that department, so ably 

 presided over by Mr. Selwyn, that we can expect finality in 

 this direction. Modesty, perhaps, ought to make one abstain 

 from mentioning individuals, and now I only speak of those 

 I personally know, and I throw no imputation on others ; 

 but I do here deliberately take this opportunity of saying, 

 that if my learned and amiable friend, Mr. Ulrich, of the 

 Geological Survey, with his extensive experience and his love 

 of crystals, were detailed off", with his assistants, for a few 

 months, all the scientific mists now hanging over our most 

 prolific gem-bearing district might not only be cleared up, 

 but a flood of light thrown on the future prospects of Northern 

 Victoria as a gem-producing country. What I am stating in 

 this place will appear far more reasonable and striking when 

 I come to animadvert upon the special collections of gems 

 forwarded to the exhibition by Mr. Turner and Mr. Milner 

 Stephen — collections made by them upon the very spots 

 where they have been discovered, or picked out of hetero- 

 geneous masses of rubbish which miners brought to them for 

 examination.* 



* Catalogue — Turner, 6 uncut ; Bates, 1 cut, large ; Falk, 1 rough, in a 

 ring ; Stephen. 



