90 
THE PRINCIPAL FLOOR. 
Queensland. The gold deposits of Western Australia are also* 
represented in this Case. The principal specimens of Australian 
gold, however, are exhibited in a special Case, No. 23, noticed at 
p. 51 ; and an attractive model, explaining the method of gold- 
mining in Victoria, will be found in the Model Room (p. 135). 
East Indies. 
Case 39 . — This Case is devoted to the display of Indian 
minerals, but the Indian series commences with a few specimens 
in Case 38 , and is continued in Case 40 . The metalliferous 
minerals include samples of the ores of iron, manganese, 
cobalt, copper, and antimony ; but these are of subordinate 
interest to the collection of gold-ores from Mysore and the 
Wynaad. The large series of ochres , used as pigments, from the 
Madras Presidency, is followed by an extensive collection of 
varieties of corundum. The name of corundum is applied to 
the opaque, roughly crystallised kinds of native alumina, whilst 
the massive and more impure forms of the same species are 
known as emery ; the passage of corundum into emery is 
illustrated in this series. From its hardness, which is inferior 
only to that of the diamond, the mineral in its coarser forms is 
extensively used for grinding and polishing purposes (p. 39). 
Some samples of graphite, or plumbago, from Ceylon, are also 
placed in this Case, but the mineral is better represented by 
specimens in the central Plorseshoe Case (p. 103). 
Case 40 . — The non-metallic minerals of India extend into 
this Case, where the upper shelves are devoted to a series of 
specimens of rock salt, nitre, &c. Then follows a collection of 
tin-ores from Perak and Johore, in the Malay Peninsula, and 
from the islands of Banca and Billiton. A fine mass of tin-ore 
from Selangor is placed on the bottom shelf. So important are 
the tin workings in this part of the world that the tin and 
tin-ore imported into the United Kingdom from the Straits 
Settlements during the year 1893 was estimated to have the 
value of nearly two millions and a quarter sterling. 
A small group of specimens, principally from Jamaica, illus- 
trating the resources of the West Indies is intercalated between 
the minerals of the East Indies and those of British America. 
British America. 
Case 40 . — The mineral wealth of Canada is very fairly 
represented in this Case and the following one. The series com- 
mences with a suite of specimens of asbestos, a mineral which in 
recent years has been rather largely worked in the serpentine 
rocks of certain parts of Canada, and which receives extensive 
application in the arts, as is well shown by the technological 
series in the Horseshoe Case (p. 117). Then follow some fine 
examples of the apatite, or phosphate of lime, which occurs in 
considerable deposits in the Laurentian limestones, and is valued 
