On the Ornamental Stones of the Colony. 81 



process then consists of washing the stones carefully, and 

 allowing them to dry at the temperature of the air, and then 

 placing them in a solution of honey diluted with water, in 

 the proportion of half-a-pound of honey mixed with a quart 

 of water. The stones are kept in this solution at a tem- 

 perature somewhat below boiling heat, for from fourteen to 

 twenty days ; water being added from time to time to 

 supply that lost by evaporation. After this the stones are 

 removed, carefully washed, and then placed in common 

 sulphuric acid, which carbonizes the honey that has been 

 absorbed into the pores of the stone, leaving black lines and 

 bands. Using other solutions, of course other colours would 

 be obtained. Nickel and chrome would produce green 

 chrysoprose. It is necessary to notice the discovery 

 of chalcedony in the Dandenong district, whence 

 several specimens of a very well-handed variety have been 

 brought by Mr. Hardy. They occur there with dark brown 

 opaline flints, and are probably derived from the older 

 basaltic formations which occur in the neighbourhood, and 

 have been subjected to denudation. 



Another locality where agates and jaspers have been found 

 in abundance is on the Cape Otway coast, near the mouth 

 of the Gellibrand river. Mr. Wilkinson, in exploring this 

 portion of the country some years ago, found that the coast 

 was covered with a bed of shingle, composed of pebbles of 

 jasper, dense quartz rock, and various very fine kinds of 

 porphyry. Rock masses similar to these latter are not known 

 in the colony ; therefore, it is supposed that they are derived 

 from a conglomerate composed of these pebbles, which must 

 form the bottom of Bass' Straits at this point, and stands, 

 perhaps, in some near relation to our upper palsezoic con- 

 glomerates that appear as small outlines over the central 

 portion of the colony. 



As nearest allied to the stones forming varieties of quartz, 

 it is right to throw a passing glance at the class of common 

 opal, opal-jasper, semi-opal, and wood-opal, which occur in 

 many places in the colony. Thougn not of any very great 

 beauty, they are in Europe frequently fashioned into neat 

 ornaments ; those of wood-opal especially forming objects 

 of considerable interest. The common opal, semi-opal, and 

 opal-jasper are usually of a blue-brown or yellowish-green 

 colour ; they are found in the basaltic clays near Melbourne, 

 Keilor, Bacchus Marsh, and Sunbury. 



Wood-opal, of various shades of brown, in which the 



