158 GOLD, 



made to work mines supposed to contain 

 gold, but it has never been found in these 

 islands in sufficient quantity to render such 

 undertakings remunerative, and all these 

 schemes have been attended by the loss of 

 the capital employed. Tiie most important 

 of these explorations for gold were those 

 carried on in the County Wicklow, in Ire- 

 land, to which attention was directed in 

 1795 by the discovery of lumps of gold in a 

 valley situated on the flanks of the Crog- 

 han Kinshela Mountain. Although these 

 washings never proved permanently profit- 

 able, considerable quantities of gold were 

 obtained, the greater part of which was 

 made into articles of jewelry. During the 

 last occasion when the works were brought 

 into active operation by the Government, 

 gold to the value of £3675 was raised. 

 Lumps of large dimensions were sometimes 

 met Avith : one was found weighing 22 oz., 

 a model of which is placed in the collection 

 of Trinity College, Dublin : other specimens 

 of two or three our.ces weight were not un- 

 frequently discovered, while several were 

 procured exceeding an ounce — the latter 

 occurring in sand covered with turf, adjacent 

 to a rivulet. The gold from this locality is 

 from 215 to 217 carats fine, the alloy being 

 silver. 



More recently the search for gold was re- 

 sumed near North Molton, in lodes tra- 

 versing the Devonian rocks. Gold is also 

 found in veins of Quartz and Calc-spar, tra- 

 versing Cambrian grits and talcose schists 

 belonging to Lower Silurian Lingula flags, 

 between Dolgelly and Barmouth in Me- 

 rionethshire. The principal explorations 

 have been made at Cwm-eisen, Tyddyn- 

 gwladis,Dol-y-frwynog, the Prince of Wales, 

 the Cambrian, and the Vigra and Clogau 

 Mines. At the latter, within the last few 

 months (Feb. 1861), above 200 ozs. have been 

 extracted from about 10 fathoms of driving, 

 where the better veinstuff yielded, in large 

 lumps, at the rate of 150 ozs. of gold to the 

 ton. 



Gold has been occasionally met with in 

 the tin-streams of Cornwall, at the Carnon 

 stream-works, and at Crow Hill. It has 

 also been found in the gossan at Nangiles 

 and other Mines. The largest Cornish 

 specimen yet found weighed 2 oz. 3 dwts. 

 The Pyrites from the London Clay is said 

 to contain a minute quantity of gold.* 



Gold is found in the sediments of the 

 Ehine, mostly in thin scales, lying among 



* Specimens of British gold are containpd in 

 Wall-case 14, at the Museum of Practical Geology. 



GOLD. 



quartzite and other pebbles, often beneath 

 but not in the loess. It is also found in 

 Spain and Portugal. The Tagus, in the 

 time of the Carthaginians, bore gold with 

 its sands, derived from the reefs of Auri- 

 ferous Quartz Avhich traverse the Silurian 

 rocks of Portuguese and Spanish Estrema- 

 dura, where the traces of ancient workings 

 of the Phenicians, the Carthaginians, the 

 Romans, and subsequently of the Moors, 

 still remain. Many of the Roman pro- 

 consuls are said to have obtained almost 

 fabulous sums from the produce of the mines 

 in Iberia (Spain and Portugal). In fact 

 those countries, especially the former, were 

 to the Carthaginians and Romans what 

 Peru was to the subjects of Charles Y. and 

 Philip II. " Natura regionis circa se omnis 

 aurifera, miniique, et chrysocollse et aliorum 

 colorum ferax. Itaque exerceri solum jussit. 

 Sic Astures et latentes in profundo opes suas 

 atque divitias, dum aliis queerunt, nosse 

 cceperunt." — Florus, lib. iv. cap. 12. 



The principal sources of gold in Africa are' 

 those of Kordofan, between Darfour and 

 Abyssinia; the desert of Zaara, in Western 

 Africa, from the mouth of the Senegal to the 

 Cape of Palms; and the south-east coast, 

 between the twenty-second and twenty-fifth 

 degrees of south latitude, in the country of 

 Sofala, opposite to Madagascar, Large 

 quantities of gold are procured by washing 

 the alluvial deposits in Brazil, particularly 

 near Villa Rica, in the neighbourhood of 

 Cocaes. The gold of Chili and Caracas, as 

 well as that obtained at Choco,- Antioquia, 

 and elsewhere in New Grenada, is the pro- 

 duct of the washings established in alluvial 

 grounds. The gold of Mexico and Peru is 

 mostly extracted from ores of other metals. 

 Japan, Formosa, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, 

 Borneo, the Philippines, and some other 

 islands of the Indian Archipelago are rich 

 in gold streams.f 



In India gold is found in two different 

 localities, in grains, as stream-gold, and in 

 lumps in alluvial deposits. It is also ob- 

 tained from the washings of the sands of the 

 Riviere du Loup, in Canada, 



Gold was originally discovered in Califor- 

 nia by some of the Jesuits who accompanied 

 the Spanish settlers to that colony ; and 

 there is in the Royal collection of Minerals 

 in Madrid a large nugget, which was sent 

 from that country as a present to the Em- 

 peror Charles V. Although it was stated ! 

 by Jamieson, as early as the year 1816, that 



t Sf^e lire's Diet, of Arts, Manufactures, and 

 Mines (article, Gold), vol. ii. 



