Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 4 October 1894, page 6


ROYAL SOCIETY.

A meeting of members of the Royal Society of

New South Wales was held at the society 's rooms rooms last evening, Professor Threlfall president of the society, occupying the chair. There was a good

attendance.

Tho following gentlemen were balloted for and elected members of the society -Messrs. Henry Ambrose Hunt George Henry Rowney, A.M.L C.E and Arthur William Tooth Mr W. Baldwin Spencer M.A. , professor of biology in the University of Melbourne was unanimously admitted as an honorary member.

Professor Liversidge road a paper "On the Occurrence of Gold in Hawkesbury Sandstone". He had in 1892, commenced a systematic examination of the sandstone and shale about Sydney for the occurrence of gold. The Hawkes-bury sandstone and Waianamatta shale was, of course, derived from older and pro-bably gold-bearing rocks hence it was not unreasonable to expect to find gold in them. The Hawkesbury sandstone was analagous to a gold-bearing sea beach. The late Rev. W. B. Clarke saw minute specs of gold in quartz pebbles of the sand-stone on tho North Shore, and at Govett's Leap, but did not consider them of any commercial value. Ten experiments were mad by a student at the University with 5 lb weight of sandstone, but none them contained sufficient gold to pay for extraction. Two other experiments were much more satisfactory. The first was a very ferruginous red sandstone, which assayed 9 dwt. 19 gr. gold per ton of the value of about £2 per ton. The second was a pebbly sandstone, assaying 3 dwt 6 gr gold per ton, worth about 13s. Deep red Waianamatta shale, taken from a trench in the University's grounds, yielded

2 dwt. 23. 8 gr gold to the ton worth just under 12s per ton. A nodule of hard ferruginous shale yielded 3 dwt. 13 gr gold to the ton, worth 15s per ton; but this nodule did not represent tho bulk of the shale. Now that the cyanide process would treat tailings at a cost of 3s per ton, it might

be that some of the richer sandstone and shale would be found to pay for the treatment. He had selected the sandstone which showed indications of oxide of iron or which contained quartz pebbles.

Mr H.C. RUSSELL submitted a paper on »Ocean Currents" He said that his PP"T' so technical that he would only give an out-

line of it to the meeting. They were sure (?) that it was alleged there was a constant southerly current setting along the easte n coast of Australia. A good many years ago he began the collection of

data to see how far they could assist the know-ledge that had been already acquired on the subject. The data given by the Admiralty was very unsatis-factory Some officers said that the current was constantly to the south but that about: 50 mu«

GO mues off tho dist tho current set to the nora.

willi» another authority .«WffrÄw south during Bummer and north du"°R__!__.ngh Tho facts [^brought before hem ««" »««¿SÇ

to eettlo the matta but meroly added more a»« thotr present knowledge

The papers were followed by discussion. The only other subject submitted to the meeting was on 'Three Standard Thermometers" by the chairman, and the proceedings then closed.