426 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
(4). Quartz reefs in the Croghan Kinshelagh district and other 
favourable localities:—It has already been pointed out that no 
auriferous vein or lode has been found, the explorations only 
having narrowed the limits of its possible occurrence. If one lode 
or vein were proved auriferous, it would show to what system the 
auriferous lodes belong, and remove the difficuity of concluding 
whether they be auriferous continually or only locally.” 
I entirely concur with these conclusions, and as a part proof I 
must refer to Assay No. 65; Croghan Kinshelagh ; four dwts. 
per ton. 
Mr. George H. Kinahan, referring to the valley from Mucklagh 
Brook to the Darragh Water (over six miles in length), says this 
valley has not been explored. Bearing this in mind, I spent 
some four days in prospecting and panning the river; eighty 
pannings were made, of which thirty-two were found to be blanks, 
the remainder containing very fine gold, proving his theory to be 
correct. 
In conclusion, Wicklow may be considered from a miner’s point 
of view “‘ unscratched ” and worthy of further attention. I may 
perhaps be permitted to say that where the same prospects present 
themselvesin South Africa we would leave “no stone unturned ” to 
bring the matter to a conclusion one way or the other. The portion 
worthy, in my opinion, of attention is the Croghan Kinshelagh 
Mountain, more especially at the junction of the diorite rocks, and the 
Silurian formation. It is well known throughout gold mining that 
the presence of diorite is indicative of gold, and the gold matrix is 
always richer in that metal in the immediate vicinity of diorite. 
From my own experience on the Witwatersrandt, the banket* 
becomes highly impregnated with gold at the junction of the 
banket and a diorite fault or dyke. In the Barberton District, 
Transvaal, a highly decomposed diorite, existing more or less as 
a sheet, contains gold in payable quantity. I quote this as an 
example in order to prove that the dioritic rocks should not be 
overlooked. Undoubtedly, it can be argued that owing to the 
samples all more or less containing a certain amount of gold, 
natural concentration has taken place. This, I should consider 
worthy of support, provided the district had been properly 
1 Conglomerate. 
