022 PKOF. G. H. Y. ULRICH ON THE 



pursuance of this project I have since written to and interviewed a 

 number of persons who, I thought, could aid me in the matter. The. 

 results of these endeavours have not, however, I am sorry to say, 

 come up to my expectations, owing to loss and damage of specimens 

 sent to me, and various other mishaps. Thus my hope that some, 

 from amongst quite a little army of prospectors (about 150 men) 

 who, aided by the Government, landed towards the end of 1886 in 

 Big Bay, would collect and send specimens was quite disappointed, 

 as not one of the party penetrated as far inland as the E-ed Hill. 

 In fact they soon became so dissatisfied with the hard work of exploring 

 the rough country that they hurriedly left the district in troops, and 

 very soon after not one of them remained. In 1887 1 was, how- 

 ever, gratified in receiving from Mr. Macfarlane a larger sample of 

 the Awaruite-bearing sand from the Gorge River, together with 

 portion of a serpentine pebble of nephritic aspect, containing 

 small specks of Awaruite. During the same year, and again in 

 1888, an intrepid, enterprising prospector, Mr. Robert Paulin, with 

 several hired men, traversed the Red-Hill district in various direc- 

 tions, prospecting the rivers and creeks ; and from him I received 

 last year, besides a few more specimens of serpentine and other rocks, 

 some valuable notes, accompanied by a sketch-plan of the district, 

 indicating the distribution of the Awaruite and the extent of the 

 peridotite and serpentine rocks. The several small rock-samples 

 so far enumerated, of which the collection brought by Messrs. Hen- 

 derson and Batement was the most diversified and important, have 

 thus been all the material available to work upon ; whilst regarding 

 the general geological structure of the country, and more especially 

 the mode of occurrence and extent of the peridotite and derived 

 serpentine rocks, I can only give an imperfect outline, gathered 

 from the reports and notes received from Mr. Gerhard Mueller, 

 Messrs. Henderson and Batement, Mr. Macfarlane, Capt. Malcolm, 

 Mr. Paulin, and several other persons I met since who have traversed 

 the district. 



2. Geologu and Description of the Rocks. 



Regarding the general geological structure of the country it is 

 reported that the ranges from near tbe sea-coast inland to the ice- 

 clad Dividing Range, except where broken through by the peridotite 

 and derived serpentine rocks, consist of metamorphic schists (gneiss, 

 mica-schist, and chlorite-schist) with occasional massive protrusions 

 and probably large dykes of granite and quartz-porphyry. Judging 

 from a few small specimens obtained from Mr. Paulin, the granite is 

 medium-grained and rather felspathic (felspar flesh-coloured), with 

 principally dark mica ; whilst the gneiss and mica-schist are of 

 ordinary character, showing also mainly dark mica. Where the 



Judd, Bonney, and others can prove. I have nevertheless considered it neces- 

 sary to lay before the Society tbe foregoing succinct statements of facts 

 )-elating to the matter, wbich will afford the explanation which Sir James 

 Hector says the case requires. 



