New South Wales. 
35 
Varieties of this mineral occur in the Grose River, at Burra- 
gorang, on the Colo, on Mount Victoria, and in one spot in 
Tasmania behind Table Cape, on the southern shore of Bass’s 
Strait, as well as in other localities in other Colonies. Presuming 
that the origin above suggested is correct, viz., the occasional 
occurrence in the ancient deposits of trees of a peculiar resinous 
constitution, there is no anomaly in finding in one spot a mere 
patch amidst a coal seam (as is the case at Anvil Creek, on the 
Hunter River), or thick-bedded masses of greater area as in the 
coal seams of Mount York, or of American Creek in the Illawarra, 
depending on the original amount of drift timber. 
In the section presented by the escarpment on the left bank of 
Cox’s River, below Pulpit Hill, at Megalong, there are two beds 
in which this hydrocarbon exists. 
Some time since specimens of this, together with others from 
the Illawarra, were taken to America by Mr. Consul Hall, and 
were subjected to examination by Professor Silliman. The 
result was afterwards published in the American Journal of 
Science and Art , under the name of Wollongongite, an accidental 
misnomer (as I have elsewhere pointed out), inasmuch as I have 
Mr. Hall’s written assurance that the specimens examined by 
Professor Silliman did not come from the illawarra, but from the 
western sections at Megalong and Bcedy Creek. 
Professor Silliman shows that this material, as tested by him, 
has an illuminating power very much greater than any other yet 
known. It would be invaluable if it existed in sufficient quantity 
to meet all demands upon it. As it is, there are two separate 
oil-producing works (one on American Creek, the other in 
Petrolia), which are now employed in making mineral oils of 
reasonably good quality, though both inferior to the product 
described by Professor Silliman. 
It has been an object of inquiry whether Petroleum springs 
exist in New South Wales. Such have been reported from the 
Corong in South Australia, and from Taranaki in New Zealand, 
and from Victoria. The former is, wo learn, a mistake, being 
probably at a point where certain animal substances have decom¬ 
posed. In New South Wales there are also two localities, known 
to me for many years, in which a nitrous product exudes; and 
there are two or three in Western Australia of the same kind, 
which I examined. Nothing of value lias as yet been found. 
Supposing the truth of the conjecture respecting the formation 
of Torbanite and its allies from chemical decomposition and 
changes of resinous kinds of drift timber in the masses now trans¬ 
formed to coal, the occurrence of such a mineral is not necessarily 
confined to coal-beds of one epoch ; and thus we find Hr. Hector 
reporting on the occurrence of a hydrocarbon in New Zealand, 
from what he deems a Secondary formation, intermediate in 
