620 PROF. tt. H. F. ULRICH ON THE 



it is dispersed in minute grains, in the same manner as metallic 

 copper occurs in serpentine in Aniseed Valley near Nelson." 



On seeing the notices about Mr. Skey's first paper (October " 

 1885), giving full particulars regarding discovery, composition, &c., 

 of the new mineral, in the daily newspapers, and being cognisant 

 of the fact of Oktibbehite being a meteorite, and therefore 

 Awaruite not being the second (as Mr. Skey supposed), but 

 really the Jirst nickel-iron alloy of telluric origin, a fact that 

 greatly heightened the scientific interest attaching to it, I at once 

 communicated with some friends at Hokitika and Koss on the 

 West Coast, and was successful in procuring, through their 

 agency, a small parcel of the nickeliferous sand. In order to gain 

 information regarding the special locality of occurrence of the alloy, 

 and, what was of most importance, about the nature of the rocks in 

 the vicinity from which it was likely to be derived, I also wrote to 

 Mr. Gerhard Mueller, Chief Surveyor, Hokitika, and Mr. D. Macfar- 

 lane. Warden of Jackson's Bay, two men to whom before all others 

 belongs the credit of having by dangerous explorations procured 

 nearly all the reliable information we have of the topographical and 

 geological features of that wild part of the West Coast in which the 

 new mineral was found. 



Mr. Mueller kindly responded by furnishing me with a copy 

 of the topographical plan (p. 624) of the country under notice, 

 which he had prepared from his surveys and explorations, 

 and also with his Eeport thereon ; while Mr. Macfarlane was good 

 enough to inform me that the Red-Hill mountain-complex and the 

 Olivine Range, depicted on Mr. Mueller's plan, largely consisted of 

 olivine-rock, which he was the first to recognize as such, and on 

 account of which Mr. Mueller adopted the name Olivine Range. 

 Pvegarding my request for specimens of the rocks from the locality 

 where the Awaruite occurs, he intimated his intention of shortly 

 making a journey through the district, when he would specially col- 

 lect for me the specimens asked for. This journey did not, however, 

 take place, and no further information was received until the begin- 

 ning of May 1886, when two of my students, Messrs. Henderson and 

 Batement, submitted to me a small collection of rocks and mineral 

 specimens which during the early part of the year they had brought 

 from an exploring-trip extending from the head of Lake Wakatipu 

 across the Dividing Range and through the Red-Hill district down 

 to the west coast of the Island. They had spent several weeks in 

 exploring the wild, inhospitable region of the Red Hill, an enterprise 

 only rendered possible through the fortunate circumstance that just 

 at that time a well-equipped party of gold-prospectors were camping 

 on the Red Hill, at a height of near 3000 ft. To one of them, Capt. 

 Malcolm, I am indebted for several rock-specimens mentioned further 

 on. The collection mentioned, owing to difficulty of carriage, consisted 

 mostly of chips and small pieces, amongst which varieties of peri- 

 dotite and serpentine claimed most attention. The several speci- 

 mens are more specially described in the sequel. They were obtained 

 in various places on the Red-Hill Range, along the red-weathered 



