84 On the Ornamental Stones oj the Colony. 



posed of a very hard dark greenish-black dense rock, closely 

 approaching a basalt, and with a metallic ring where struck, 

 like clinkstone ; passing southwards to a lighter green, hard 

 rock with albite crystals, sometimes having the appearance 

 of a greenish-white rock with black dendritic markings. 

 This stone, were it not for its extreme hardness and con- 

 sequent difficulty and expense in quarrying and working 

 up, would make a very handsome stone for building or 

 ornamental purposes. Further south it becomes a black, 

 highly crystalline rock, and then again a dark green dense 

 rock with specks of iron pyrites. About a mile north-east 

 of Mount William, and in a saddle between it and the Black 

 Range, is the site (locally called " The Native Tomahawk 

 Quarries ") whence the aboriginal tribes of the neighbouring 

 districts have procured the greenstone used by them for 

 making tomahawks. From the amount of broken and 

 chipped stone covering a large area, this quarry must have 

 been in use for a very lengthened period. The stone takes 

 a very sharp edge. A large boulder stands up in the centre 

 of an open pit, chipped all over superficially, and apparently 

 in great requisition from its extreme hardness ; but which 

 has resisted all their efforts to raise it from its bed. 



Benallic Shell Limestone. 



This limestone is found in the valley of the Moorabool 

 and at Barwon Heads. It resembles very closely the white 

 limestone from Omaru, New Zealand, and might be used for 

 the same purposes. It is especially adapted for light, orna- 

 mental mouldings, as it may be readily carved into figures 

 with an ordinary knife. Specimens freshly removed from 

 the quarry harden on exposure to the air, and are less 

 readily worked, but it of course makes the stone more 

 durable. Considerable care would be required in selecting 

 the stone ; for, in places it varies both in colour and texture, 

 the colour becoming a pale brownish-yellow, and the texture 

 more open when the fossils of which it is composed attain a 

 large size. As a building material, it should be of consider- 

 able value in the country ; but in large towns, where the 

 atmosphere is always more or less charged with smoke and 

 acid vapours, unless protected, it would be liabie to blacken 

 and decay. This could be prevented by silicating the stone 

 by immersion in a solution of a soluble silicate, and then in 

 one of chloride of lime, or washing the surface with these 

 solutions after the erection of the building. This process, 



