reached, many men seem to get tired of good healthy work, and instead of exploring fresh fields go over the old, and keep magnifying minor differences into groups of families, to the complete confusion of everything; forgetting that the great aim of all science is simplicity, and the more simple a science the grander and nobler it is.

Art. LII.—On a New Form of Iron Pyrites. (With Illustrations.) By E. H. Davis, F.C.S., F.G.S. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, September 17, 1870.] Iron Pyrites has long been known as a dimorphous mineral, occurring crystallized in the tesseral and rhombic systems; the latter variety, called marcasite, occurs as a right rhombic prism—∞ P 106° 5′, brachydome ⅓ P ∞ 136° 54′, brachydome P ∞ 80.20 and a macrodome P ∞ 64° 54′ combined. The other form is common in cubes ∞ O ∞, octahedron O, and several semitesseral forms, the pentagonal dodecahedron ∞02/2; the hemihedral form of the tetrakishexa-hedron, rarely tetrahedral; a common combination is that of the pentagonal dodecahedron with the octahedron, the faces of the latter replacing the trigonal angles of the dodecahedron. Macles are common, but are not material to the present purpose. Plate XXVI., fig. 7., is a new form from the Chatham Islands. The lustre, specific gravity, and hardness, are the same as the common varieties; the system is oblique, nearly isomorphous with felspar, but having the clinodiagonal longer; the faces, which are smooth and brilliant, are ∞ P prism (P), OP clinopinacoid (M), P hemipyramid (a), nP∞ hemidome (d), (nP∞) clinodome (n). The thick lines show where the crystal is cut off.

Art. LIII.—Remarks on the Resemblance of the Country in the neighbourhood of the Dun Mountain, and Wairoa Gorge, to the Mining Districts of Queensland and Auckland. By W. Wells. [Read before the Nelson Association for the Promotion of Science and Industry, April 6, 1870.] In bringing the subject of the present paper before the Association, I will at once state that I am indebted for the facts contained in it partly to my own observation, but more particularly to communications received from Dr. Hector, Mr. T. R. Hackett, and, latterly, to a very able report on the Rockhampton gold-mining district in Queensland, by Mr. Daintree, the Government Geologist of that colony.