KiNAHAN — On the Possibility of Gold in Co. Wicklow. 41 



river there are no workings more than thirty feet deep, while 

 nearly all of them are less than twelve or fifteen feet ; there is 

 therefore, in this valley at the least, over a mile of untried deep 

 ground. 



In connexion with the Darragh water or Aughrim river, the 

 gold-bearing tributaries are : — the Tomnaskela river, the Cool- 

 bawn stream, the Ow river, the Kilmacreddin stream, the Clone 

 stream, the Ballintemple stream, and the Gold-mine river ; yet the 

 alluvium of the valley has not yet been tried, except at Ballycoog 

 steps, where gold was proved. The distance from the inver or 

 mouth of the Tomnaskela river to the Lower Meeting at Wood 

 bridge is over eight miles. 



Gold has been found in the sand of the Ow and in the alluvium 

 of its tributary, the Mucklagh brook ; the untried valley from the 

 Mucklagh brook to the. Darragh water valley being over six miles 

 in length. 



Only the shallow alluvium of the upper tributaries of the Mac- 

 reddin stream have been worked, there being a length of over three 

 miles of deep alluvium between them and the Darragh water. 



In connexion with the Ovoca, there is gold in the gossan of the 

 Ballymurtagh, Upper Cronebane, and Connary mines, in the river 

 gravel at Castle Macadam, and in the alluvium of the Darragh 

 water and its tributaries. There is, therefore, from the Ovoca 

 mines to the sea at Arklow a length of over six miles of untried 

 deep alluvium. So much for the untried deep and shallow placers 

 in the neighbourhood of the Gold-mine Valley. 



In connexion with the S. branch of the Gold-mine Yalley, one or 

 two "dry gulches" were worked by Weaver, who got in them "large 

 g^ld." Nowhere else does there appear to have been exploration 

 made in search for " dry gulches." 



The relics of the more' ancient valleys, that is, "shelf," or "bar 

 placers," have never been looked after ; yet in many places there 

 is a possibility, if not a probability, that such golden relics might 

 be found. Experience in America and Australia has proved that 

 such deposits usually, although not always, occur in the shelves at 

 the convex side of valleys, below the level of the source of the 

 gold ; and such shelves, possibly gold-producing, are very conspi- 

 cuous in places along the valleys of the Ovoca, the Darragh water, 

 and the Gold-mine river, at heights below the known points at which 



