xcii President's Address 



men not wholly in the employment of the Government, and, 

 until lately, but partially under its control. 



The Mining Department co-operates with the Director of 

 the Geological Survey, and much useful information is from 

 time to time given to the public, both by communications 

 to out- Society, and in papers laid before Parliament, and 

 published in blue-books. 



In this way we have learned that considerable quantities 

 of the oxides of manganese occur in many parts of the 

 Ararat district, both in quartz veins associated with gold 

 and in the alluvial deposits ; that there are beds of lignite 

 in numerous localities alternating with the lower 

 strata of clays in the " deep leads ; " that the ores of copper 

 and lead are found in most of the localities where there are 

 numerous quartz veins (and, though in small quantities, they 

 deserve the attention of the geologist) ; that the sulphide 

 and oxide of antimony in large quantities are not restricted 

 to Heathcote, but occur in the basin of the Yarra, at Ingle- 

 wood, at Steiglitz, and elsewhere ; that in the neighbourhood 

 of plutonic rocks there are nearly everywhere mingled with 

 the drift titanic iron, pleonast, corundum, zircon, and topaz ; 

 that chr ornate of iron and chrome ochre are found in con- 

 siderable quantities in the vicinity of basalt on the River 

 Loddon ; that pyromorphite is found at Ararat, and that 

 lolingite and pyrrhotine are common at Maldon. 



If many of these do not at present add to our national 

 wealth, they serve to indicate fields of research for the 

 mineralogist. I am also indebted to the department for the 

 knowledge of the discovery of fossil bones on McCallum's 

 Creek, near Talbot, by Mr. Hull and Mr. E. J. Bateman, 

 who forwarded the specimens now in the National Museum, 

 and which I found to belong to the Diprotodon. The Map 

 of the Colony is being gradually filled in from the surveys 

 made by the Mining Surveyors, which, together with the 



