278 



another ; statements alternately being made that payable waslidirt for the last 

 20 feet existed, and of an utter absence of the precious metal. This flat, in 

 fact presenting a surface, 1 believe, for I have not been there, of not two miles 

 square, and, in proportion to the large basins up country, most unfavourable to 

 determine the existence of an old river channel. It is in the heart of most 

 hilly, and I ftiight say almost mountainous, country, and the shaft in question 

 being sunk near the centre of the basin, would not afford indications or results 

 such as I imagine may be proved by testing an outflow or inflow of one of the 

 larger basins I have already alluded to. 



The extent of the gold fields of this province has been given in the 

 Government maps. If the wearing joower I have attempted to describe is 

 correctly stated, we shovild surely possess far richer spots than (hose yet worked, 

 assuming that the rottenness of this vast range of country at pi"esent fills the 

 different basins. 



In concluding, I beg to thank Mr. J. T. Thomson, our Commissioner of 

 Crown Lands, for assisting me with his experience in reference to ice evidence 

 in Scotland, and in our explorations through Green Island. 



Art. L. — Notes on the Geology of White Island. By James Hectoe, M.D., 

 F.R.S., Director Geological Survey of New Zealand. With Observations on 

 the Cry stalline forms of the S-pecimens of Sulphur obtained. By E. H. Davis, 

 F.G.S., F.C.S.,* of the Geological Survey Department. 



(With Illustrations.) 



{^Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, November 12, 1870.] 



In the course of a voyage from Auckland, in April last, I had an opportunity 

 of landing for a short time on Whakaari, or White Island, the well known 

 active volcano situated in the Bay of Plenty, aboiit fifty miles east of Tauranga. 

 In the short time at my disposal I was not able to examine this most interesting 

 locality with the care it deserves, but I made the following rough notes, and 

 collected many specimens which have since been examined. 



The island lies twenty miles out of the direct track of vessels crossing the 

 Bay of Plenty from Cape Colville to the East Cape, but the weather being 

 favourable for landing, the deflection from the ordinary course was determined 

 on at an early hour, and during the morning we had the island distinctly in 

 view. On previous occasions I had always noticed columns of steam rising 



* While this volnme is in tlie press, the small staff of scientific workers in New 

 Zealand, on the 9th ult. , suffered a great loss, through the accidental death, by drowning, 

 of this talented and promising geologist, while engaged in surveying the Grey Kiver 

 coal field, on the west coast of Nelson. — Ed. March, 1871. 



