316 Scientific Proceedinys, Royal Dublin Society. 
Dublin, where he sold it for a large price to a jeweller in Capel- 
street. That was what led to the Government investigations there 
in 1796. ! 
This appears to be due to a blending by the family of the story 
of the discovery, about 1784 or 1785, by John Byrne, of a nugget 
of a quarter of an ounce,” with that of the 22 oz. nugget which 
was certainly not sold to a tinker as we shall presently see. 
Lloyd says (p. 36) that it was intended to present the 22 oz. 
nugget to his Majesty George III., for which purpose it may be 
supposed that the Government acquired it. Gerrard Kinahan* 
includes it and two others, mentioned by Mills, of 5 oz. and 2 oz. 
17 dwt., and one of 20 oz. 2 dwt. 21 grs. mentioned by Molesworth 
in his table as having been found by the peasants. I am quite 
satisfied that the nugget weighed by Molesworth,‘ though his 
language is obscure, was the same 22 oz. one, and that the weight 
he gives was either its weight in water, or the weight of pure 
gold in the nugget, and that it should not be regarded as re- 
ferring to a separate nugget as Kinahan suggests. Molesworth 
found its specific gravity to be to that of pure gold as 12 to 18; 
and Kirwan found that of another specimen to be as 13 to 18. 
The Hibernian Magazine’ gives a somewhat exaggerated account 
of the value of the mine. it refers to a nugget that was in the 
possession of Mr. Atkinson, agent to Lord Carysfort, for which 
eighty guineas was offered, but was refused. The story also is 
related of a yarn-dealer who, for ten years, had used a piece of 
“cold ore” as a two-pound weight, believing it to be copper ore, 
and had broken several pieces from it to adjust the weight. It 
had then recently been sold for a considerable sum. 
Most of the early writers whom we have quoted from in this 
Paper simply attribute a weight of 22 oz. to the nugget, namely, 
Lloyd, Mills, and Kirwan,° in 1795-6; and, among later writers, 
Mallet in 1849, and Gilbert Sanders and R. Scott in 1865. 
1 Journal of the Royal Geol. Soc., vol. xi., 1865, p. 99. 
2 See Phil. Trans., vol. Ixxxvi., 1796, pp. 34-37. 
3 <¢ On the occurrence and winning of gold in Ireland,”’ Journ. Roy. Geol. Soc., 
Ireland, vol. vi. (New Ser., Pt. ii.), 1882, p. 147. 
4 Phil. Trans. 1796, vol. Ixxxvi., pp. 44, 45. 
5 Part ii., 1795, p. 382. 
6 Mineralogy, vol. ii., p. 93 n. 
