1854.] heaphy gold in new zealand. 31 



November 29, 1854. 



The following communications were read : — 



I. On a PTERiCHTHYs/rom the Old Red Sandstone q/" Moray. 

 By Captain L. Brickenden, F.G.S. 



(Abstract.) 



This communication had reference to a species of Pterichthys, re- 

 markable for its great size (estimated by the author at 25 inches [ave- 

 rage] in length, and 6 inches in breadth), and its peculiarly orna- 

 mented and wrinkled surface. The paper was illustrated by drawings, 

 in which the author had made a conjectural restoration of the external 

 bony armour and the lateral appendages of the fish, from the nu- 

 merous characteristic fragments that he had obtained in the upper 

 division of the Devonian strata, chiefly from the Vale of Rothes. 



The central dorsal plate of this species has some resemblance to, 

 but is much larger than Agassiz's figure (Poiss. V. G. R. pi. 30*. 

 figs. 17, 18) of the specimen referred by him to Coccosteus, but 

 more lately by Sir P. Egerton and Hugh Miller to Pterichthys (Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. 310, 31 1) ; and the jointed side-spines 

 or " cephalic oars" resemble those referred by Agassiz to the P. major, 

 but belong to a very much larger fish. 



2. On the Gold-bearing District of Coromandel Harbour, 

 New Zealand. By Charles Heaphy, Esq., Commissioner of 

 Gold Fields*. 



[Forwarded by His Excellency Sir George Grey, and communicated by the 



Presidentf.] 



Physical Geography of the District . — The Peninsula of Coromandel 

 stretches for about fifty miles in a general direction of N. 30° W. 

 and S. 30° E., and is the northern extremity of a high range which 

 extends from a mountainous centre near the Taupe Lake and Boiling 

 Springs in the interior of the Northern Island of New Zealand. The 

 peninsula forms the eastern shore of the Frith of the Thames, on 

 the western coast of which, about forty miles distant, the Settlement 

 of Auckland is situated. 



The peninsula varies in breadth from four to twenty-two miles, 

 and is mountainous in its whole extent ; a main range, but very little 

 deflected from a northerly and southerly direction, and of an average 

 height of 1500 feet (the highest summits being about 3000 feet above 

 the sea), runs along its centre, throwing oif spurs of inferior heights 



* See also a short notice of the gold diggings in this locality, Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. No. 39, p. 322. 



t This communication was accompanied by a large map and landscape sketches 

 of the district; the former with frequent geological indications. A box of speci- 

 mens was also sent, which are referred to in the memoir. 



