232 J. MILNE CURRAN. 
tin deposits to the south of Emmaville, and between that town 
and the Severn River. They can still be obtained in considerable 
quantity at Sapphire in the drift of Fraser’s Creek. Between 
Inverell and Glen Innes the road crosses a high basaltic range. 
Tt may be safely said that sapphire occurs in all the drifts of the 
creeks that head in the western slopes of this range ; the creeks 
that drain the country round the White Rock, for instance, Swan- 
brook, King’s Creek, Paradise Creek, and the drifts on various 
parts of Newstead and Elsmore. Further west beyond Inverell, 
the diamantiferous country is reached, and although sapphires 
are also found here, they are nowhere so abundant as in the 
localities referred to. Sapphires are almost continually being 
found when washing for tin-stone. It must be noted though, 
that sapphire is more plentiful in the Pleistocene deposits than 
it is in the Tertiary leads, as is also the case at Tumberumba. 
*Some very fine sapphires are found a few miles from Crookwell, 
on the Goulburn side, but they have never been systematically 
mined for. All that have been won were got in alluvial ground 
(in basaltic country) while looking for gold. The very large 
number of sapphires coming from New England is accounted for 
by the fact that they are got when mining for tin. There is no 
tin in the Crookwell drift, and the gold has not been mined for 
on any large scale, so the value of the gem-deposits remain 
unknown. 
Character of the New South Wales Sapphire. 
It is well known at this date that although sapphires are 
abundant in the Colony, the proportion of good gem-stones is 
extremely small. I have seen some hundreds of stones ready for 
export, and Mr. Murfin, lapidary, of Pitt-street, Sydney, has cut 
a number for my own collection, But a really first-class stone 
more than a carat in weight I have never met. The Rev. J oseph 
Campbell when at Glen Innes had some really good stones, but 
all under half a carat. 
Taking the best stones, I may mention a stone that in the rough 
was half an inch long and of a lovely velvet blue. It was found 
