ON THE DISCOVERY OF AWARUITE. 6 1 



kind of terrestrial origin ; and he also suggested that the mineral would 

 be found in some basic rock in the vicinity of Barn Bay. Mr. Skey's 

 paper appeared in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 

 1885, and was reprinted with some additions in the Annual Report, for 

 1885-86, of the Colonial Museum and Laboratory, Wellington. The 

 additions concerned the results of Mr. Skey's examination of other three 

 samples of heavy black sand : namely, No. 1, from Barn Bay, contained 

 no Awaruite ; No. 2, from Callery's Creek, contained 4 °/ o , and No. 3, 

 from the Gorge River, 45 - 36 %. Amongst other minerals sent with 

 the samples of black sand Mr. Skey mentions a hydrous ferruginous 

 serpentine ; and in a footnote he states " this serpentine proves to be 

 the matrix of the nickel-mineral Awaruite, in which it is dispersed in 

 minute grains, in the same manner as metallic copper occurs in 

 serpentine in Aniseed Valley near Nelson." 



On seeing the notices about Mr. Skey's first paper (October 1885), 

 giving full particulars regarding discovery, composition, <fec, of the new 

 mineral, in the daily newspapers, and being cognisant of the fact of 

 Oktibbehite being a meteorite, and therefore Awaruite not being the 

 second (as Mr. Skey supposed), but really the first nickel-iron alloy of 

 telluric origin, a fact that greatly heightened the scientific interest 

 attaching to it, I at once communicated with some friends at Hokitika 

 and Ross on the West Coast, and was successful in procuring, through 

 their agency, a small parcel of the nickeliferous sand. In order to gain 

 information regarding the special locality of occurrence of the alloy, and 

 what was of most importance, about the nature of the rocks in the 

 vicinity from which it was likely to be derived, I also wrote to Mr. 

 Gerhard Mueller, Chief Surveyor, Hokitika, and Mr. D. Macfarlane, 

 Warden of Jackson's Bay, two men to whom before all others belongs 

 the credit of having by dangerous explorations procured nearly all the 

 reliable information we hav^ of the topographical and geological features 

 of that wild part of the West Coast in which the new mineral was 

 found. 



Mr. Mueller kindly responded by furnishing me with a copy of the 

 topographical plan of the country under notice, which he had prepared 

 from his surveys and explorations, and also with his Report thereon ; 

 while Mr. Macfarlane was good enough to inform me that the Red-hill 

 mountain-complex and the Olivine Range, depicted on Mr. Mueller's 

 plan, largely consisted of olivine-rock, which he was the first to 

 recognise as such, and on account of which Mr. Mueller adopted the 

 name Olivine Range. Regarding my request for specimens of the rocks 

 from the locality where Awaruite occurs, he intimated his intention of 

 shortly making a journey through the district, when he would specially 

 collect for me the specimens asked for. This journey did not, however, 

 take place, and no further information was received until the beginning 

 of May 1886, when two of my students, Messrs. Henderson and 

 Butement, submitted to me a small collection of rocks and mineral 

 specimens which during the early part of the year they had brought 

 from an exploring-trip extending from the head of Lake Wakatipu 

 across the Dividing Range and through the Red Hill district down to 

 the west coast of the Island. They had spent several weeks in 

 exploring the wild, inhospitable region of the Red Hill, an enterprise 

 only rendered possible through the fortunate circumstance that just 



