420 Transactions. — Geology. 



The present paper will be devoted to the metallic minerals. 

 Metallic Minerals. — Class I. 

 Brittle and fusible with difficulty. 

 Titanium. 



BrooJdte, Ti. — The occm'rence of this mineral in a trap-rock (coarsely 

 crystalline dolerite, belonging to the upper cretaceous period) at Otepopo, 

 discovered by Dr. Hector in 1862, is mentioned in the Jurors' Keports 

 of the New Zealand Exhibition, 1865, p. 264. No specimens are in this 

 Museum, and Professor Liversidge does not mention it in his description 

 of the New Zealand minerals in the Otago Museum submitted to him for 

 examination by Professor Hutton. 



Ilmenite, -Fe, Ti. — This mineral is represented in the iron-sands of New 

 Zealand, which contain variable quantities of Titanic oxide, but it more 

 properly belongs to the ores of iron, under which it will be described. 



Titanium has not up to the present time received any useful application 

 in the arts, indeed all its properties appear to act deleteriously. Associated 

 with iron, as in the well-known Tarauaki iron-sand, it renders the ore so 

 refractory as to make it practically useless, and in Norway and Sweden, 

 where vast deposits exist in readily accessible places, they are unworked, 

 although the ore could be placed in the English market for as little as 10s. 

 per ton. 



Tantalium. 



This metal has not yet been discovered in New Zealand. 



Tungsten. 



Scheelite, Ca W^ — The occurrence of this mineral in rolled fragments, 

 in the Buckle Burn (where it was originally discovered by Dr. Hector), Eees 

 River, and Wakatipu Lake, as well as in small grains with arsenical pyrites 

 at Waipori, is mentioned in the Jurors' Reports of New Zealand Exhibition, 

 1865, pp. 265, 414, and the specimen from Buckle Burn has again been 

 described by Professor Liversidge (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. x., p. 503), 

 but it was not till 1880 that the mineral was discovered m situ, when 

 Mr. McKay obtained it in a reef on the west side of the Richardson 

 Mountains. 



It is found as irregular masses in a quartz reef 4 feet in width, and 

 carrying a considerable quantity of mispickel, which occurs at the junction 

 of the chlorite schists and blue slate, but belongs principally to the chlorite 

 schists. 



Scheelite, or the Tungstate of Lime, has a very limited application in 

 he arts. It is used for the production of tungstate of soda, a substance 

 which has of late years supplanted stannates as a mordant, and also for 

 fireproofing fabrics, 



