On the Occurrence and Winning of Gold in Ireland. 281 



Considerations on the Occurrence of the Gold. 



Gold is known to occur in the gossan and also in the pyrites 

 lodes at Ballymurtagh, though only in minute quantities, it also 

 occurs in certain parts of the same mineral channel at Cronebane 

 and Connary, but no " streamings " have ever been attempted in 

 the gravels of the adjoining valleys and ravines. Traces of 

 " black sand " have been observed in the gravels of the Ovoca 

 below Newbridge ; and as this valley cuts across the main 

 mineral channel, it is not improbable that some sands, especially 

 the deeper ones in it and its tributaries, may yet be proved to 

 contain gold in fair proportions. 



A continuation of this same mineral channel extends along the 

 ridge overhanging the Gold Mine Valley, but no gold has been 

 found in any of the lodes hereabouts. 



That the auriferous vein or lode wherever it exists, has a quartz 

 gangue, and contains many of the minerals found associated to- 

 gether in the valleys, appears to have been proved by the speci- 

 mens collected by Weaver, who not only found gold and wolfram 

 each attached to quartz, but also found them incorporated together 

 and with ochre.* 



The Carysfort company, in searching for this quartz lode, I am 

 informed by Captain P. Argall, " about twenty -four years ago 

 calcined and stamped three or four hundred tons of quartz at the 

 Ballintemple mines, near Woodenbridge. This quartz was 

 collected from all parts of the adjacent mountain, from loose 

 blocks and from various outcrops of quartz veins intersected in 

 the levels driven in search of lead and other ores, at the Money- 

 teige and Ballintemple mines. After calcination the quartz was 

 stamped and amalgamated, and, as far as I can remember, not 

 a particle of gold was obtained." 



From the spongy and porous condition of the gold, particularly 

 the larger pieces, it may also be inferred that the lode probably 

 contains much pyrites with which the gold was intimately blended, 

 which having become decomposed is now only represented by the 



* Fraser, in his Statistical Survej' (1801), mentions these specimens attached to quartz, 

 and accounts for their rarity by the fact that, as the peasants sold the gold by weight, 

 all useless minerals were first detached. Also, Mr. J. Knight Boswell, stated (1865) 

 that he had " a piece of quartz with gold all round it," but adds that it " was evidently 

 the effect of water." 



SciEN, Pboc. R.D.S., Vol, in., Ft. v. Z 



