330 
im TROPICAL. AGKICULTDRIST. 
[Nov. 1, 19,02. 
cent 'of total salts could ouly be expected to bear 
good crops if the water supply were regular through- 
out the season. — Madras College Magazine. 
— — ^ . ■ 
THE SAPPHIRE MINES OF ANAKIE, 
QUEENSLAND. 
During my recent visit in Central Queensland I 
was asked to visit the sapphire mines of Anakie, 
200 miles west of Kockliampton by rail. From 
Anakie railway station to tlie nearest mines, on 
Ketreat Creek, is nearly eight miles, The oldest 
and most extensive rock masses in the Anakie dis- 
trict are granite and its varieties, assumed to be of 
nietaaiorphic origin. Gneisses, schists, and slates 
test against the granites, and are everywhere found 
in contact with them. Intrusive rocks, acidic and 
basic, occur throughout. The former, consisting pf 
pegmatite, felspar, porphyry, and felsites, are in 
great abundance, and traverse the granites and 
gneisses in all directions. The basic rocks are 
hornblendic, and are either massive hornblende,_or 
else.diorite. There are also outcrops of massive 
epidote rock and garnet rock in places. There is a 
younger formation, making a break between the 
other rocks. This consists principally of shales, 
sandstones, and conglomerates. The remnants of 
the pre-existing formation consist of boulders of 
hard flinty quartzite, of general occurrence in Cen- 
tral Queensland, and designated " billy." It occurs 
exclusively as boulders in the alluvial sapphire de- 
posits. The sapphires are distributed over a large 
area, but nearly all are confined to the granite 
country. The deposits occur on the banks of the 
creek, but very rarely are they found in the beds of 
the present streams. Sapphires are found in the 
basalt at an altitude of 5'JO feet above the highest 
alluvial deposit. 
In-addition to gems there are found black tourma- 
line in abundance, titanic iron, pleonaste,' and mag- 
netite. At Sheep Station Creek there is a small 
outcrop of schist, sections of which shovv it to be 
hornblende, qnarlz, and red garnet. Policeman 
Knob, close to Policeman Creek, is remarkable for 
tlie number of white and coloured zircons found in 
the alluvial deposit below the basalt, but so far no 
sapphires iiave been got from the deposit. 
Tiie thickness of the gem deposits varies from a 
tew inches to several feet. The bottom is usually 
a reddish clay, and below this clay another and 
sometimes richer deposit has been found. The sap- 
phire wash isftequenily clayey, and requires "pud- 
ding" befora the gems can be extracted, but much 
of tlie wash is loose and friable, the sapphires being 
obtained by " dry sieving." In several parts of the 
field the wash is of enormous thickness, but very 
little prospecting has yet been carried on. 
THE SAPPHIRE, FIELDS. 
The field is divided into four camps ; I found 
the wasli varying greatly in thickness. The wash 
includes, in addition to several varieties of "billy," 
red and brown jasper quartz, fibrous hornblende, 
jnagnesite, tourmaline, topaz, pleonajSte, rock 
crystal, and several varieties of chalcedony. 
Several rubies have been found, which, compared 
to the blue, green, and yellow sapphires, are ex- 
ceedingly rare. Some very fine stones have beeii 
found on this field, amongst them two very fine 
yellow, weighing nearly 50 carats each. The blue 
stones , found are, as a rule, dark, but the green 
stones, when free from flaws, are very fine gems. 
Some fine hyacinths, a variety of the zircon, are 
^lao fouad at tim^s, Qn Hunt's claiuii one of the 
best on the field the stones found were large 
blue and others of a beautiful light yellowish 
green. Zircon, garnets, and amethysts have also 
been found. I saw a fine yellow sapphire weighing 
close on 80 carats, and some fine green stones. 
Crystallised corundum has been found on this 
claim. One of the most brilliant yellow stones 
ever obtained, and which after cutting weighed 
33 carats, was got in this mine. The Policeman 
Creek camp is celebrated for a diamond weighing 
] J carat, found in M'Chrystal's claim. The miners 
thought it was a white sapphire, but during Mr. 
Dunstan's visit he set them to rights on that point. 
It is quite probable that others were found pre- 
viously and sent away with parcels of stones, as two 
other diamonds have since been found on Ketreat 
Creek. Large sapphires are found on Iguana Fiat, 
but from there to the lower end of Policeman Creek 
there is a gradual diminution in the size of the 
stones, although the blues of Iguana Flat are not 
as good in colour as those on the creek. 
The green sapi)hires found on the Central Creek 
are often of a brilliant shade. The sapphire deposits 
are, however, most extensive on Tomahawk Creek. 
Mr, Diinstan says that in places they are a mile 
in width and several miles in length. Occasionally 
there is a break, but otherwise they wind about 
on both sides of Kosky's Creek. The total distance 
along whicli the deposits are found in this camp 
is about 15 miles.— Syc^ney Mail, Sept. 6. 
CEYLON TEA ON THE CONTINENT QF 
EUROPE. 
Mr. J, H. Renton sends us three pamphlets 
bearing on Ceylon Teas. One is in Rnss 
very prettily got up with 20 fine illustr.ations 
showing all the operations of tea planting 
and manufacture and even of despatch by 
steamer, with appropriate letterpress. An- 
other in French " Rapport sur le The 
de Ceylon" by Dr. Doorkovitz and a, 
third in German, a translation of the latter. 
The Russiiin chemist who writes these is 
well-known in the scientific world and in 
1890 he gave some lectures at St. Petersburg 
upon Tea, especially showing its alimentary 
value. Not only is tea valuable as a stimulant, 
but it serves to create the heat necessary 
for the functions of the body, A table follows 
shewing the amount of caloric required every 
twenty-four hours and the qu^intities of 
hy drates of carbon, of albumen and fat re- 
quired for the production of so much heat 
or energy, by means of which the functions 
of the body are carried on. To understatii 
tlie influence of tea as a factor in the aliment 
tation, one must study the two tables given, 
drawn up by Messrs Franklaud and Payey, 
shewing the relative value of each food foi: 
muscular work, also the weight of nourish- 
ment necessary and the quantity to maintain 
a working man. In the table we note that 
the energy created by the consumption of 
so much carrots and potatoes— or of a much 
smaller quantity of beef-fat is the same. It 
followed then that with the man who lives 
on carrots &c., a considerable amount of 
energy with have to go to digest the food 
and he VP ill never have the activity he might 
have had, if he had taken a more substiW* 
tial fqo^i/Q^^ss. volici^Jgt .. ' iJ-nw.. ; 
