THE MINERALS OP NEW SOUTH WALES. 201 



The New South Wales sapphires, in common with those from 

 other parts of Australia, are usually rather dark in colour ; they, 

 however, are found varying from perfectly colourless and trans- 

 parent, through various shades of blue and green, to a dark and 

 almost opaque blue. One or two green-coloured sapphires or 

 oriental emeralds are almost always met with in every parcel of a 

 hundred or so specimens, also blue and white particoloured. 



Asteria or Sapphires which show a six-rayed star of reflected 

 light are by no means uncommon. 



Sapphires are almost invariably met with by the miners as an 

 accompaniment of alluvial gold. 



They are widely distributed over the New England District, as 

 at Bingera and near Inverell, with tin, adamantine spar, zircons, 

 topaz, and bismuthite ; in Vegetable, Cope's and Nundle Creeks, the 

 Gwydir River, Dundee, Uralla, Ben Lomond ; Mann's River, the 

 Abercrombie, Namoi, Peel, and Cudgegong Rivers ; at Two-mile 

 Flat; in Bell's River and Pink's Creek, with white topaz, almanden 

 garnets, epidote, spinelle, chrysoberyl, chrysolite, hyacinth, etc. ; at 

 Tumberumba, with tinstone and other minerals ; also in the Shoal- 

 haven and Snowy Rivers. 



The late Dr. A. M. Thomson, Professor in the Sydney University, 

 detected a variety peculiar to the Mudgee district, which occurs in 

 uniformly small slightly barrel-shaped hexagonal crystals of about 

 J-in. long and ^§-in. diameter — opaque, and of a peculiar lavender 

 colour. 



He made out the composition as follows : — 



Alumina 98*57 



Iron Sesquioxide 2*25 



Lime 45 



101-27 



H. = 9. Sp.gr. = 3-59. 



Ruby, or Red Sapphire. 



This is much more rare than the blue gem. The late Mr. 

 Stutchbury reports its occurrence with sapphire, chrysolite, hyacinth, 

 amethyst, and other gems in the Cudgegong between Eumbi and 

 Bimbijong, and in Mullen's and Lawson's Creeks which fall into 

 the Cudgegong. And the Rev. W. B. Clarke found it at Tumber- 

 umba with similar gems. It is found too at Mudgee, but is not 

 common, and usually of small size ; also from a small creek, about 



