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facilities for works on a large scale ; and, consequently, though it may for a number of years yield profitably, the sum total of its product cannot be of vital importance to New Zealand. It has been said that this area in Brook Street Valley is distinct from the coal-bearing area to the south-west formerly worked at Jenkins's Hill. Both lie along the north-western side of the same line of fault, and intermediate between the two there is a smaller area, also deeply involved, along the line of fault. The area within which Jenkins's Hill Mine is situated has a considerable extension in a south-west direction, and reaches as far as a point between Stoke and Richmond. But this south-western part has not been prospected. Further yet to the south-west the coalmeasures may be traced as far as the road leading from Hope into the lower part of Aniseed Valley, and it is probable that the soft sandstone showing in the banks and bed of the river at the foot of the Wairoa Gorge are a continuation of the same series of rocks. In the opposite north-east direction the line of fracture, to the existence of which the presence of coal is due, can be traced along the slope of the range on the east side of this middle part of Brook Street Valley to opposite Mr. Stuart's homestead, where coal-measures and traces of coal are again found. These indications can be traced across the saddle, lying about east of Stuart's farm, into the valley of a small tributary of the Maitai River that flows north-east to the main stream. On the saddle and on the north-east slope, thence towards and into the Maitai watershed, though the rocks of the coal-bearing series are much indurated, they yet differ wholly from the underlying and nearly-contiguous slates and sandstones of the Maitai series; and from these they are so sufficiently distinct and different in character that no confusion should arise, even in the mind of a tyro in such matters, as to the limits of the two formations. This distinctness is further emphasized by the occurrence of fossils in the younger formation, which, of distinctly Tertiary species belonging to the genera Struthiolaria, Turritella, and Cucullcea, have in some astonishing manner been regarded by some, who pretend to a more than ordinary knowledge of geology and palaeontology, as proofs of the Carboniferous age of the rocks in which they (these fossils) are found. It has been gravely asserted, in reports to the Enner Glynn Coal Prospecting Association or company, in the Press, and announced in lectures before the public, that these Brook Street Valley coal-measures belong to the Carboniferous period, and are the representatives of the true English coal-measures, resting on Devonian and Silurian rocks, and containing organic evidences of this their assumed age. If this be true, it is singular how, within a distance of less than three miles, Carboniferous fossils can be collected from the so-called Silurian rocks, or how dicotyledonous leaves, characteristic of Tertiary times, together with the fossils mentioned above, can be obtained from the rocks of the Enner Glynn coal-measures themselves. Yet more, Hochstetter, Haast, Hector, Hutton, Hacket, Davis, Cox, Park, and myself all agree as to the Tertiary or Cretaceo-tertiary age of the beds in question. The above proofs, and this unanimity of opinion as to the age of the beds, should be sufficient answer, and for ever place this matter of the age of the beds at rest and beyond controversy. Alex. McKay, The Under-Secretary of Mines, Wellington. Mining Geologist.

A-DEPOSIT OF CHROMATE OF IRON ON THE NORTH-WESTERN SLOPES OF MOUNT STARVEALL, WAIMEA COUNTY, NELSON. Report on, by Alexander McKay, F.G.S., Mining Geologist.

Mr. A. McKay to the Under-Secretary of Mines. Sir,— 10th June, 1896. By your direction I visited the outcrops of chromic iron situated between the Serpentine and Lea Rivers on the north-western slopes of Mount Starveall, and have the honour to report on the same as follows: — Report. The locality of the chromic outcrops was visited between the 26th and 28th October last. My guide was Mr. Busch, of Aniseed Valley, the discoverer of the different outcrops of ore which it was wished I should examine. The particular outcrops examined lie along both sides of the eastern mineral belt and partly within the watershed of the Serpentine River but mainly within that of the Lea River. The different outcrops of ore occur at heights varying from 2,550 ft. to 3,100 ft. above sea-level. The principal outcrop lies within the watershed of the Lea River, at a height of 2,650 ft., and consists of three bunches or blocks of ore, the first two of which, nearly connected with each other, make a total length along the line of supposed lode of 14ft. In breadth the outcrop is from sft. to 6ft., and in depth it may measure as much as in length. There are no signs of the presence of a lode or lode-fissure in which the ore might extend in length and depth, the mass of chromic iron being enclosed in olivine rock, which, encasing it, show no signs of walls that usually indicate the existence of a true vein. While lesser masses and small nests of the ore can be found along a line equidistant from the slates and sandstones that bound the mineral belt on the east, yet this merely indicates a horizon at which the ore-nests are found in greater abundance than elsewhere in the olivine rocks. About 150 yards south from the outcrop above described a third mass of ore is seen lying on the left bank of the creek flowing into the Lea River. This has the appearance of being a loose mass that has fallen away from the outcrop higher up the hill. These are the principal outcrops