New South Wales. 
107 
besides those in the gold-drifts ; and on Lawson’s Creek, a feeder 
of the Cudgcgong, agate breccias and opals occur. Opaline veins 
also occur in the basin of the Abercrombie River; in that of the 
Barcoo. in Queensland; and about 25 miles S.E. of Cudgellcgp.ng 
Lake, on the Lachlan River. 
At the mouths of the Richmond and Clarence.Rivers gold is 
found distributed in the sands and covering pebbles of the sea 
beach ; a similar distribution is found in the sands of Shell 
J [arbour, lllawarra (where the accumulations above-named occur), 
and some gold was extracted. Other spots give similar indica¬ 
tions ; and one specimen of gold was brought tip from the sea 
bottom by the sounding operations of II.M.S. “ Herald,” oiF Port 
Macquarie. Gilded pebbles also occur on the West coast of New 
Zealand. 
Numerous instances have also been recorded of gold having 
been found in the gizzards of wild fowl and of domestic poultry, 
in various parts of the Colony, confirming, with the above- 
mentioned facts, the almost universal distribution of the precious 
metal in river-drifts and superficial deposits. Some of the above- 
named examples of gold collected by birds were exhibited by me 
at Sydney and in Paris in 1855, and are still in my possession. 
All along the coast, from Torres’s Strait to Bass's Strait drift 
pumice may be found wherever there is a lodgment, generally in 
the north corner of the little shore bays. That this has gone on 
for ages is apparent, as in one part of the coast north of Wollon¬ 
gong there is an accumulation of water-worn pumice some dis¬ 
tance from the shore, and beyond the reach of the present waves. 
It is supposed to come in during easterly gales, from the volcanic 
islands to the north-east. In 1811 this fact, and all the evidence 
then collected in relation to such drift and 4i atmospheric deposits 
of dust and ashes,” were published in a paper l forwarded to the 
“ Tasmanian Journal of which D’Archiae (“Trot/, do la Gtol. ) 
was pleased to say it contained all that was known on the sub ject . 
Subsequently received facts have only confirmed what was then 
stated. 
Along the coast of New South Wales arc found ranges of 
dunes, with a variety of shells, some of them rare, others common, 
as on Port Hacking and Cronulla Beach ; along the shores of 
Botany Bay; on the great fiat between the Hunter and Port 
Stephens, and along the Macleay River, which now passes for 
many miles through the shelly accumulations ; and about Moreton 
Bay, and in more northern coast openings, shells and Marino 
refuse form deep deposits, from which, as in lllawarra and 
Broken Bay, a considerable profit is obtained by dredgers and 
shell-collectors, for the production of limb. 
Respecting recent species very little is actually known of 
many of them, comparatively speaking, in any of the Colonies. 
