40 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Duhlin Society, 



The gold of this portion of Wieklow has been found sparingly, 

 without tin ore, in " black sand," and more abundantly in con- 

 nexion with tin ore and wolfram. On the accompanying map I 

 have marked in red (they being copied from the maps of Grerrard 

 A. Kinahan) the places in the immediate vicinity of the Grold-mine 

 Valley where gold has been found, and with blue lines most of the 

 principal open casts made in search of the "quartz-reef" or "mother- 

 rock" of the gold. To the westward, in the Coolbawn valley, 

 gold and tin were found in quantity north of where the letter A 

 is marked on the map ; in the S.W. branch of the Grold-mine river 

 gold and a quantity of tin were found north-east of the place where 

 B is marked ; while in the S. branch they were found north and 

 north-east of the letter C ; it may, therefore, be naturally suggested 

 that if a "mother-rock" exists, it ought to be found somewhere 

 near one of these points ; while, as far as can be learned from the 

 records, no researches have been made in connexion with such an 

 idea. Mills indeed suggested that the high ground of Ballinasil- 

 loge, to the north of B, should be tried, but his suggestion was 

 overruled by Weaver and Kirwan : there is also the high land of 

 Knockmiller, between B and C, that has not been tried ; while 

 immediately eastward there is more untried high land, although 

 in the valley of the townland of Mongan there are indications that 

 strongly suggest the presence somewhere thereabouts of a mineral 

 vein. It therefore appears to me that until after the high land 

 in these localities has been investigated it would be rash to assert 

 no gold reef exists. 



To the westward, in the upper portion of the. Tomaskela river 

 valley, gold has been proved to exist, but never worked for. In the 

 Coolbawn stream and its eastern tributaries all the diggings were 

 shallow, the search being abandoned when the head of drift be- 

 came twelve or fifteen feet deep. However, three miles to the 

 N.W., near the Darragh water, where the alluvium was again 

 shallow, the gold was worked. There is, therefore, in the Cool- 

 bawn valley three miles in length of untried deep alluvium.^ 



In the valleys of the S. W. and S. branches of the Grold-mine 



^ "Weaver began trials in this deep ground ; but when he found the drift was deep 

 enough to prevent the country people from working there, he abandoned them, deep 

 works being contrary to his instruction, 



