tities were found. The district from a hurried examination 

 seems to deserve further prospecting, but the paucity 

 of outcrop of the rocks themselves would render it 

 expensive. 



Monazite and Tin.— At the mouth of the Fraser Rivera 

 deposit known as the " Black Sand," was for some time 

 treated with an expensive plant for its content of monazite 

 and tin. The monazite was separated without great 

 difficulty, but its low percentage of thorium forbade its 

 ready sale, and the tin concentrates did not pay for the 

 cost of working. Cheaper methods of separation may yet 

 enable the deposit to be worked, but the chief importance 

 in its existence is the probability that elsewhere in the 

 island there may be tin connected especially with the peg- 

 matites which accompany the acid eruptive rocks. 



The Building Slates.— At the City of Melbourne Bay on 

 the east coast an attempt is now being made to prove the 

 slates for building and roofing purposes. At the time of 

 our visit (Feb. 1910) a tunnel had been driven into the hill, 

 and slate of moderate quality, suitable for flagstones had 

 already been reached at a distance of 70 feet. These slates 

 should perhaps be called shales in obedience to a distinction 

 made by some authors, since the planes of flssility are those 

 of the bedding and have not been superinduced by subsequent 

 transverse pressure. The slates are of two colours on the 

 surface, a handsome dark red and a greyish-green. 



Porcelain materials.— -The possibility of the coarse peg- 

 matite veins described above being of economic importance 

 as a source of felspar for porcelain making may be 



Penological Notes.— The following are descriptions of a 

 few of the rock types met with. The most interesting are 

 a series of biotite granulites, which in hand specimens look 



