NOTE ON THE ORIGIN OF MALACHITE. AlT 
duce such a plentiful crop of crystals of iron sulphate that the 
sides and floor of a drive will be covered as if by snow ; so much 
so that the sound of one’s footfall is muffled as one proceeds. 
The writer had occasion, a short time ago, to visit the abandoned 
workings of a copper mine, and the observations made there are 
the subject of this note. The mine in question is situated at 
Girilambone, in the western part of the Colony, about one hundred 
miles from the Darling. The ore occurs as a copper-bearing schist, 
and where unaltered-is a bluish micaceous rock, carrying strings 
and blebs of a pyrite poor in copper. Permanent water stands at 
adepth of one hundred and eighty feet; above this level the 
rock is soft and weathered, and the copper occurs as azurite and 
malachite, with a little oxide of copper. Copper glance is said to 
have been found there in the early days. 
The azurite and malachite occur mainly as nodules of varying 
Size ; these are not pure carbonate of copper, but are earthy, and 
consist of portions of schist which have been saturated with the 
jmineral, Malachite occurs also as narrow strings of pure carbonate 
of the fibrous variety. It is to this I wish to draw particular 
attention, 
Between the surface and water-level a great deal of excavation 
has been made in the schist, and these excavations can now be 
examined in safety. Most of them have been standing so for 
thirteen years past. The workings are very dry and crystals are 
not very plentiful, but in one crosscut, where there appears to be 
4 drainage channel, the sides and roof are covered with particularly 
fine and long crystals of sulphate of copper and sulphate of iron, 
Some of the crystals being an inch and a half long. 
Further investigation shewed that the schist in the crosscut was 
fall of crystals of copper sulphate. The crystals had formed in 
the foliation planes of the schist, and were closely packed bundles. 
of very fine fibrous crystals, completely filling the fissure. In 
most cases the crystals were at right angles to the sides of the 
fissure, but in some cases the fibrous crystals had become curved 
As—Dee. 4, 1895, 
