60 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



is conchoidal, with a very strong resinous lustre. Hardness and 

 specific gravity about the same as the green ore, and rather more 

 brittle. The very light brown species (No. 6), bear a great resem- 

 blance to limonite, and are so soft as to be easily marked by the nail. 

 They, however, do not appear to belong to the same class of cres 

 as mentioned above, as the silica fluctuates with the nickel and 

 magnesium oxides, and is sometimes very low, as little as 5 per cent, 

 being not unusual. A fact worth noting in connection with oxide of 

 iron deposits is, that although containing oxide of chromium up 

 to 8 per cent., they are easily and entirely soluble in warm dilute 

 hydrochloric acid. 



Exposed to the action of the weather all these ores gradually 

 crumble to a powder, the brown exhibiting this to a more marked 

 extent than the green. They are easily dissolved by hot hydrochloric 

 acid, and the silica which separates out does not take the gelatinous 

 condition. Up to the present no trace of crystalline character has 

 been found, although some magnesia-rich specimens occasionally 

 present an appearance similar to asbestos. 



Thio, New Caledonia, July 20th, 1890. 



ON THE DISCOVERY, MODE OF OCCURRENCE, AND 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE NICKEL-IRON^ ALLOY 



AWARUITE, ON THE WEST COAST OF 



THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW 



ZEALAND.* 



BY PROFESSOR G. H. F. ULRICH, F.G.S. 



In October 1885, Mr. W. Skev, Government Analyst, read a paper 

 before the New Zealand Philosophical Society, Wellington, announcing 

 the discovery of a Nickel-Iron Alloy, which he recognised as a new 

 mineral species and named " Awaruite." The discovery was made in a 

 collection of minerals sent to the Government Laboratory by Mr. 

 Macfarlane, the Warden of the Jackson's Bay District, which includes 

 Big Bay (Maori name, " Awarua"), Barn Bay, and other Bays in that 

 part of the West Coast of the South Island. Mr. Skey found the new 

 mineral as small grains or scales in a sample of heavy black sand, 

 reported as saved by alluvial miners in Barn Bay ; and he gave in his 

 paper, besides descriptions of the physical character of the alloy and 

 its mineral associates, interesting particulars concerning its behaviour 

 towards a solution of cuprous sulphate acidulated with hydrochloric 

 acid, and its quantitative chemical composition as: — Ni=67'63, Co = 

 0-70, Fe = 31-02, S = 0-22, Si0 3 =(H3; Formula = 2Ni + Fe ; Sp. Gr. 

 = 8d ; Hardness about 5. He considered the alloy as the second of its 

 kind, of terrestrial origin, so far discovered, under the impression that 

 the known Nickel-Iron " Oktibbehite " (Ni + Fe), which is a meteorite 

 found in Oktibbeha City, North AmericaT, was the first alloy of this 



* From the "Quarteily Journal of the Geological Society," for November 1890, 



Vol. xlvi. 

 t Wadsworth's " Lithological Studies," Table II., page xiv. 



