The Nephrite and Magnesian Rocks of the South Island of New Zealand

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Abstract
Ever since Hochstetter's work on the olivine-rock of the Dun Mountain, and on the New Zealand nephrite or ‘greenstone,’ the rocks of the ‘magnesian belt’ of the South Island of New Zealand have had an absorbing interest for students of that district. The term ‘magnesian belt’ is here used to denote those peridotites and serpentines that have hitherto been frequently referred to by the names ‘serpentine-belt’ and ‘mineral-belt,’ Until recent years, however, the occurrence and nature of the various exposures which comprise this most interesting and significant petrographic province have remained rather obscure, owing to the rugged nature of the country and the inaccessibility of the chief localities. In this paper is given a general account of the peridotite- and serpentine-rocks of the South Island and a discussion of the nature and origin of New Zealand nephrite. Those analyses which are not attributed to others are my own work, and were made in the geological laboratory of the Imperial College of Science & Technology, South Kensington. II. The Peridotites and Serpentines. General Occurence and Relations. Occurrence.—The position of the known outcrops is indicated on the map accompanying this paper (fig. 1, p. 352). The magnesian belt, as generally understood, first appears as a group of serpeatines and peridotites extending from D'Urville Island in a south-westerly direction for some miles past the town of Nelson. Serpentines have also been observed in the Buller basin ; and still farther south, in the western foothills of the Southern Alps, occur the disconnected sills

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