No. 2.
The Lieutenant-Governor to the Governor-in-Chief.

Sir,—

I have the honor to forward to your Excellency a copy of a very interesting report from Mr. Mantell, relative to the geological formation of that part of the Middle Island traversed by him in passing from Akaroa to Otago.

I would more particularly call your Excellency's attention to the descriptions given in page 26, and to the list of specimens mentioned at the end of the report.^* These specimens I have seen, and find them exactly corresponding to similar ones found in the Barrossa Ranges, in South Australia, near which several mines of copper and lead exist; and I have no doubt but that when the Middle Island comes to be better known and carefully examined, valuable mines of both copper and lead will be discovered there.