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XXY.— ON THE MODE OF OCCUREENCE AND WINNING 

 OF GOLD IN IRELAND, by Gerrard A. Kinahan. With 

 Plates XX. and XXL 



[Read March 20th, 1882.] 



Of recent years improvements in metallurgical processes have 

 rendered the production of silver a much cheaper operation than 

 formerly, and as a necessary consequence, combined with an 

 increase in the supply from other sources, that metal has deterior- 

 ated materially in value. This has increased the appreciation 

 of gold, and rendered the sources from which it may be derived 

 more worthy of consideration. 



Attention has been directed to the more productive auriferous 

 districts over the world ; but although these, and the gold fields 

 of Great Britain, have been described, no special account, so far 

 as I can learn, has been given, in recent years, of the occurrence of 

 gold in Ireland. I have, therefore, ventured to lay before the 

 Society the following epitome compiled from the various pub- 

 lished sources, and have endeavoured to bring the subject down 

 to the present date. 



Introductory Remarks. 



In very remote times, gold was probably a production of Ire- 

 land, because in the annals numerous mention of this metal is 

 to be found,* and in recent years the quantities of golden ornaments 

 and vessels that have been exhumed from the bogs and prehistoric 

 structures, would seem to strengthen this supposition. 



Of these discoveries, one of the most remarkable is that in the 

 Bog of Cullen, on the borders of the counties of Tipperary and 

 Limerick, where not only golden vessels and ornaments, but also 

 the crucibles, ladles, and other instruments, necessary for the 

 working of that metal, have been found under a considerable 

 thickness of peat. Of the finds in this bog, Vallancey gives an 



* See Simon's Irish Coins, page 2, and Wilde's Catalogue of the Antiquities of Gold in 

 the Museum, E.I.A., page 3. 



