September 2024 Stone Collecting Trip –Part 23, High Tide and A Few More Stones at Kakanui’s Seadown Beach, Afternoon of Monday 30 September

I returned to Seadown Beach at 3.15 pm at high tide, to fossick along the high tide mark. The waves were coming up to about half-way through the scatterings of stones that stretch northwards along the beach.

I found more stones during this afternoon’s fossick than this morning. I spent nearly two hours walking north.

The most unusual stone stone I found this afternoon was this small dotted one, a type I have not seen before:

There are pastel coloured quartzites on the beach, mainly blue and gray, quite different from the yellow ones that are even more common. This find is maybe the best I have seen here:

Among the yellow quartzites I collected was this one with some red in it. In parts, it seems like there is a transparent surface to the stone, with yellow material inside it:

The next stone is a jasper that caught my eye because one of its larger quartz veins is quite unusual, having a thin line of jasper within it. The jasper itself is less bright than can be found with other jaspers, maybe because hematite is absent:

I always keep an eye out for dark brown stones on this beach – some are limonite prase (or limonite in prase, as it is sometimes called) which is a kind of jasper, and some may be bryozoan fossils in chalcedony. These are four I found:

A lighter coloured find:

Lastly, two contrasting “fossilised sea-floor” stones. These are softer than stones like quartzites and jasper but respond well to a tumble in fine grit, coming out with a clear surface. The first one is packed with interesting features:

The second one appears much plainer but is also intriguing:

Part 24 describes a third fossick at Seadown Beach, the last before I continue my drive north. The Index to the Posts in this Series can be found here.