200 
Mines and Mineral Statistics. 
Macleay Eiver ; at the head of the Coodradigbee : not far from 
the head of the Eogan, and in other places. 
A magnificent collection of the remains in the Wellington 
Caves has been made, at the instigation of Professor Owen, at the 
cost of the New South Wales Governmcxat, -with the superin- 
tendence of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, by one of 
them, the late Professor Thomson, and by Mr. Krefft, the 
Curator of that Institution. 
The Ecports of these gentlemen, together with more than a 
thousand jxartly determined specimens, wci*e forwarded to Pro- 
fessor Owen, who has expressed his acknowledgment of the 
value of this collection, “ as regards novelty, instructivencss, and 
encouragement for the future,” and as an “important element 
in working out the ancient history of the forms of animal life 
peculiar to Australia.” 
The Coodradigbee caverns will repay research hereafter. It 
has already furnished me with bones of birds, in which those of 
an Emu are prominent. 
The latter fact chimes in with the alleged Dromornis of 
Queensland. 
Professor M‘Coy has named bones of a Dingo in a cavern near 
Mount Maeedon. If it be really a dog of this period in Australia, 
it js another link between the Quaternary and Eecent times. 
Vicomto d’Archiac, however, doubts its antiquity : “ Rien^' he 
says, “ ne lyrouve que ce chien n'ait pas eie introcluit par les 
premiers homines qui ont peuple le continent Australien'' {Legons 
8ur la Raime Quaiernaire, Paris, 18GG, p. 271.) 
An exjmdition to Howe’s Island made known in 1SG9 the ex- 
istence of bones of birds and turtles embedded in the beach rock 
of the island. Afterwards, a collection of them was sent to 
me by Mr. Leggatt, of Eiji. I forwarded them to Professor 
Owen, who informed me that he was unable to determine to what 
they belonged, owing to their imperfect state ; but they un- 
doubtedly belong to some period near to the present, as the rock 
is a coral limestone, common to the coasts of the Pacific Islands ; 
and that dejmsit also contains a Bulimus scarcely distinguishable 
from a living shell of the same genus off the Island, and eggs of 
Turtle also embedded as in Eaiue Island in the Barrier Eeef. 
(See Trans,, Roy. Soc., 1870, p. 37). 
Within the last few years, the drifts of the Cudgegong and 
Macquarie Eivers have been searched for diamonds, first reported 
in 18G0 by myself as occurring in numbers in the latter river. 
Many thousand examples have been found, but they are chiefly 
small and of little value ; though a few have been found of larger 
size, and have been cut and polished. 
A few others have been brought to me from other localities in 
New South AYales, and a few also have been found in Victoria. 
