of Edinburgh, Session 1884-85. 
65 
Monday , 19 th January 1885. 
A. FORBES IRVINE, Esq., Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
The following Commnnications were read : — 
1. Notes on the Chemical Composition of the Cobalt and Nickel 
Ores of New Caledonia, with some Remarks on the 
Properties and Uses of Metallic Nickel and Oxides of 
Cobalt. By J. B. Readman, Esq. 
The island of New Caledonia, from which these ores of nickel 
and cobalt are derived, is situated in the South Pacific Ocean, dis- 
tant about 600 miles east from Queensland, Australia. The island is 
about 200 miles long by about 30 miles broad, and is extremely 
mountainous. New Caledonia belongs to the French, and it is 
there that they have established one of their principal penal 
settlements. 
The nickel ores of New Caledonia were discovered rather more 
than twenty years ago by Gamier, in an exploring expedition of 
the island undertaken under the auspices of the French Govern- 
ment. The ores of cobalt were a more recent discovery. 
Beginning with the deposits of cobalt ores in New Caledonia, I 
shall mention briefly — (1) The kind of deposits of cohalt ore; 
(2) their physical state ; and (lastly) their chemical composition, 
with some of the properties and the uses of the oxides of cobalt. 
1. The hind of Deposits of Cobalt Ore . — The surface deposits of 
cobalt ore are found in the midst of certain aluminous ferruginous 
masses, which seem to come from the decomposition of eruptive 
aluminous ferruginous rocks plentifully scattered in these districts. 
These masses are very much developed at the surface, and form 
immense ferruginous plateaux, which sometimes crown the top of 
the principal serpentine upheavals, but which occupy specially the 
ridges of the less elevated ranges of hills. This peculiarity causes 
the cobalt ores of New Caledonia to be found generally at low 
altitudes and not far from the sea, where the branches of the great 
VOL. XIII. 
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