Report on the Exhibition of Qems. 77 



enough how ready that class was to avail themselves of any 

 means of obtaining information. Nothing pleased me so 

 much, while it was going on, as to see the hardy miners, note- 

 book in hand, taking an account of what they saw. 



Among the many complimentary notices which appeared 

 at the time, hardly one struck me as so effective, and true to 

 what I witnessed, as that in our facetious weekly, Punch, in 

 which two 'disgusted diggers' are pourtrayed, one saying to 

 his mate, " Well, Tom, if those are diamonds, strikes me we've 

 thrown aiuay a foHin in our time." Had the intelligent 

 men I allude to seen diamonds — say only one or two — in the 

 place where they were working I think they would have 

 kept a brighter look-out for what fell under their observa- 

 tion. And what is said of the diamond holds good of other 

 precious stones. 



A glance at the catalogue of Mr. Turner's exhibits will 

 satisfy any man as to the care and intelligence he has 

 brought to bear on Colonial gems. When I was in Beech- 

 worth, two years ago, he most kindly gave me all the infor- 

 mation which he possessed at the time, and went with me 

 carefully over his collection. It was among some small stones 

 of his that I found the first specimen of a curious kind of 

 sapphire — a long hexagonal opaque crystal, with a chatoyant 

 lustre across the long axis. This he kindly gave me ; and 

 on my return to Melbourne I got Mr. Spink to polish the 

 ends, and I then found that I was right in my conjecture 

 that it was one of the star sapphires. As it was a long 

 crystal, and as its peculiar structure was shown only at the 

 ends of the long axis, and through the long axis, I had it cut 

 in two, and returned one of the pieces to him. This piece, 

 mounted as an elegant ring, was in the exhibition, and the 

 other half was in my collection. It has a distinct tlack six- 

 rayed star, in a dark blue ground, and the centre, where the 

 rays meet, is black. Over this is the customary opalescent 

 float of white light. The intelligent reader of this report 

 will do well to peruse the catalogue of Mr. Turner's gems. 

 I would, however, call attention to one substance, as I have 

 seen nothing like it before. Mr. Turner described it as a 

 wax opal. It was a fine large lump, beautifully transparent, 

 and of a deep wine-yellow colour. I think this ought to be 

 examined more carefully, and the half of it cut and polished, 

 that we may obtain some information of its value as a gem. 

 I have seen nothing that resembles it in shape and apparent 

 weight except some pieces of obsidian ; but all the obsidian 



