Difc(A)ei'y of native Gold in Inland. ^•^ 



laft (1795), and ontinued till the 18th of Odtober, when a party of the Kildare militia ar- 

 rived, and took pol^iflion by order of goverplnent j and the great concourfe of people, wh« 

 were bufijy engaged in endeavouring to procure a fhare of the treafure, immediately defiftcd 

 from their labour, and peaceably retired. 



Calculation'! h^ve been made, that, during the foregoing period, gold to the amount of 

 three thoufand pounds Irifti fteriing was fold to various perlbns ; the average price was 

 three pounds fifteen {hillings per oonce; hence eight hundred ounces appear to have been 

 collefted within the fhort fpace of fix weeks. 



The gold is of a bright yellow, perfedtly malleable ; the fpecific gravity of an apparently 

 clean piece 19,000. A fpecimen afiayed here by iVIr. Weaver in the moid way produced 

 from 24 grains, 22toV E""^'"^ "^ P"''^ gold, and i -j*^V of filver. Some of the gold is inti- 

 mately blended with, and adherent to quartz ; fome (it is faid) was found united to the fine- 

 grained iron-ftone, but the major part was entirely free from the matrix; every piece more 

 or lefs rounded on the edges, of various weights, forms and fizes, from the mod minute par- 

 ticle up to 2 oz. 17 dwt. ; only two pieces are known to have been found of fupcrior weight, 

 and one of thofe is five and the other twenty-two ounces. 



The bearings are all taken by the compafs, without allowing for the variation. 



William Molefworth, Efq. of Dublin, in a letter to Richard Molcfworth, Efq. F. R. S. 

 writes, that he weighed the largeft piece of gold in his balance, both in air and water, and 

 that its weight was 20 oz. 2 dwt> 21 gr. and its fpecific gravity to that of fterling gold, 

 as 12 to 18. Alfo, that Richard KirWan, Efq. F; R. S. found the fpecific gravity of another 

 fpecimen to be as 13 to i8. Hence, as the gold was worth 4I. an ounce, Mr. William 

 Molefworth concludes that the fpecimens are full of pores and cavities which increafe their 

 bulk, and that there are fome extraneous fubflances, fuch as dirt or clay, contained in thofe 

 cavities. 



This opinion was difcovered to be well founded, by cutting through fome of the fmall 

 Itimps. '.■"'!• ' . 



Stanefby Alchorne, Efq. his Majefty's afTay-mafter at the Tower of London, affayed two 

 fpecimens of this native gold. The firft appeared to contain in 24 carats, 



2i|- of fine gold, 

 i^ of fine filver. 

 ^ of alloy, which feemed to be copper tinged witha little iron. 



The feCond fpecimen differed only in holding 21 ^ inftead of 21 % of fine gold. ' 



Major Johii Brown, of the royal engineers, tranfmitted to the Right Hon. Thomas 

 Pelham a fketch of the fpot where the gold was found, which Mr. Pelham permitted to 

 be engraved for the ufe of the Royal Society, and of which fig. 5. plate JX. is a copy, one 

 ihird of the fize of the original. 



Gg4 yVL Am 



