THE TECHNOLOGIST. [March ], 1865. 



336 THE GOLD-FIELDS OP IRELAND. 



found in the Croghankinsella district — that is, nothing which could be 

 properly called a vein of gold-bearing stone. The searches which had 

 been made into the deposits in the valley showed a wide distribution of 

 the particles of gold. Of those particles which could be called nuggets 

 the larger were found at the upper parts of the streams towards their 

 sources ; and as they descended the streams the particles became much 

 more minute. That was not, perhaps, an absolute rule, but was gene- 

 rally the case. From the facts which had been brought to light — from 

 the. examinations which he had himself made, and from the reports 

 which he had heard from others— he had no doubt whatever that the 

 original source of the gold was high up towards the sources of these 

 streams. It was reasonable to suppose that the smaller particles should 

 be more easily swept down, while the larger masses should hold their 

 position amongst the rocks during a series of ages. Therefore they 

 should look for the original source of the gold, not in the valleys below, 

 but in the upper part of the Croghankinsella mountain. The papers 

 which had been read described the gold of the districts referred to in 

 them as found for the most part in metamorphic slates, such as the Silu- 

 rian slates of the county Wicklow. Amongst such slates in that county 

 they found gold deposited. The Auckland gold was said to be met 

 with in the chinks of rock where the edges of that rock protruded 

 through slate. They found in Wicklow no quartz bearing gold ; but 

 they did find there gold carrying portions of quartz with it. It was to 

 be supposed that that gold came from a quartz vein. He had seen 

 many specimens of gold containing quartz, but he had never found 

 there any masses of quartz with gold embedded in them, such as were 

 found in other parts of the world. They had examined a great many 

 of the quartz reefs, of which there were an immense number running 

 through the slate across the valley, and in no instance had they dis- 

 covered gold in those reefs. Yet it was impossible to imagine that the 

 gold could be anywhere except in those quartz reefs. At the time 

 the Government worked the district the engineers were of the same 

 opinion, and examined a great many of those reefs. They ran an adit of 

 120 fathoms, which he had been in, and which cut through not less than 

 from fifty to sixty quartz veins, some of them of from a foot to two feet 

 in breadth, but not one of these had yielded the smallest particle of gold 

 that he was aware of. The question was, how was the presence of gold 

 in the Croghankinsella valley to be accounted for. Dr. Lindsay stated 

 that at the Auckland gold-fields they had spent 2,0001. in collecting 

 1,100Z. worth of gold. The Mining Company had spent something more 

 in proportion, in collecting gold in the county of Wicklow, notwith- 

 standing that they believed that the indications afforded there fully 

 warranted the directors in pursuing their investigations. Hitherto 

 the gold discovered in Wicklow had been found in the streams or 

 taken from the washings of gravel, or dirt as the miners called it. The 

 company had " costined " the surface of the mountain to a considerable 



