82 W. Mallet, Esq., on the Minerals of the 



On the Minerals of the Auriferous Districts of Wicklow. 

 By William Mallet, Esq. 



The circumstances attending the original discovery of native 

 gold in the beds of some of the streams of the county of Wick- 

 low, have been already often detailed, and will, therefore, need 

 but a brief repetition. The source of the auriferous streams 

 is the mountain Croghan Kinshela, whose summit forms a 

 portion of the boundary between the counties of Wicklow 

 and Wexford. The stream from which most of the gold has 

 been obtained rises on the north-east side of this mountain, 

 and then flowing down one of the glens with which that part 

 of the country is intersected in almost every direction, joins 

 the Aughrim river, a little above the confluence of the latter 

 stream with the Avonmore. It receives several smaller 

 streams at different parts of its course, in all of which some 

 gold appears to have been found, though in general in such 

 small quantity as not to repay the cost of its extraction. 



Although this part of the country, since it has been known 

 to be auriferous, has been an object of some attraction to 

 mineralogists, but little attention seems to have been di- 

 rected to the other minerals which are to be found accom- 

 panying the gold in the alluvial deposits. These, however, 

 are interesting, not only from their number and variety, but 

 also from the occurrence amongst them of some of the rarer 

 species, which do not appear to have been noticed in any 

 other locality in Ireland. The following minerals were ob- 

 tained from a considerable mass of sand and gravel taken 

 from various parts of the bed of the principal stream : — 

 Gold, platina, tinstone, magnetic oxide of iron, micaceous 

 iron, red iron ochre, hydrous peroxide of iron, common clay 

 ironstone, iron pyrites, titaniferous iron, wolfram, oxide of 

 manganese, copper pyrites, galena, sulphuret of molybde- 

 num, sapphire, topaz, zircon, garnet (two varieties), quartz, 

 prase, augite, chlorite, felspar, mica. 



The author has since observed, in addition to those here 

 mentioned, arsenical iron, in small fragments, and also spi- 

 nelle. The latter occurs in very small grains along with the 



