Xlii. ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 



Prof. Liversidge, m.a., ll.d., p.r.s., exhibited some specimens 

 forwarded to him by Mr. Edgar Hall, f.c.s., of Tenterfield, which 

 Mr. Hall had obtained from between two courses of brickwork in 

 the arch over the vault of an old reverberatory furnace, the upper 

 course had been raised bodily, but remained intact, and the space 

 between became filled to a thickness of about four inches with a 

 layer of clean matte ; the metallic silver occurs on the surfaces 

 in the cracks and crevices of the matte and bricks. 



Mr. Hall also states that the matte assays about 120 ozs. of 

 silver per ton, 67% lead and 5% copper, whereas no matte ever 

 tapped out of the furnace in the usual way assayed less than 350 ozs. 

 silver, 20% copper, and only about 25% lead ; and probably the 

 average of all the matte made in the furnace would be 25% copper 

 25% lead, 400 ozs. silver and 1 oz. of gold per ton. 



Mr. Hall remarks "now it seems to me that this lead matte (an 

 artificial galena 1) must have separated out from the liquid matte 

 and passed through the porous brick arch as a compound of definite 

 composition, leaving the copper and silver behind." 



Prof. Liversidge stated that the galena breaks with a granular 

 fracture, and as might be expected, it is harder than usual. The 

 silver occurs in thin films not in wires or globules, it does not 

 appear to have been fused, but looks as if it had been reduced 

 from silver sulphide. 1 The silver sulphide had probably liquated 

 out from the matte, as it is very much more fusible. 



3. " The Blue Pigment of Corals," by Professor Liversidge, m.a., 

 ll.d., f.r s. 

 The coral examined was Heliopora coarulea, obtained by Prof. 

 David from Funafuti Atoll when conducting the Coral Reef 

 Exploration in 1897. He states that it is very abundant there 

 in places. The specimens were of a dull light slate-blue colour 

 externally and a little darker internally. 2 The pigment has not 

 yet been obtained in a pure condition, as the quantity at my 



1 See A. Liversidge, "On the Formation of Moss Gold and Silver" — 

 Eoy. Soc. N.S.W., 1876 ; Chem. News, 35, 1877. 



2 See Mosely's paper in the Challenger Eeport, Zoology II., p. 109. 



