March 1, 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



THE GOLD-FIELDS OF IRELAND. 337 



extent, but up to the present they had not succeeded in discovering the 

 lode from which the gold originally proceeded. In working at the lower 

 portions of the rivers they had sunk shafts under the soil to the rock 

 below, and had from thence collected gravel, from which gold had been 

 washed out. Lately, a discovery had been made on their property of a 

 very large " gossan" lode. This was a lode which he believed must have 

 at one time contained gold, but the gold had been washed out, or other- 

 Avise eliminated during a long course of ages, leaving nothing behind 

 except an ochrous matter. The paper treating of the Auckland fields 

 stated that magnetic iron was also found there. It was a remarkable 

 fact, that iron sand of a similar description, and perfectly magnetic, also 

 existed in the county of Wicklow. Mr. Sanders showed some of this 

 sand, which had been taken from the washings there. It was sta + ed in 

 the ' Field ' of the 7th of January, that no gold had been found in 

 Ireland, and that the gold used in the manufacture of the antique 

 Irish ornaments, which were preserved in museums, was brought here 

 by foreign merchants, who took in return for it the inhabitants of 

 the country, who were sold to them as slaves by the lords of the soil. 

 In reply to, and in contradiction of, this statement, he had only to ex- 

 hibit the result of a smelting he had himself made. [Mr. Sanders here 

 produced a crucible from which he extracted, by breaking it, a large 

 mass of gold.] This, he stated, had been obtained from Carysfort ma- 

 terials. It will be remembered that a mass of gold was shown by Mr. 

 Sanders at the last meeting of the Carysfort Mining Company. The 

 mass now exhibited was the additional result obtained from operations 

 which Mr. Sanders then stated that he had not had time to finish. It 

 was valued at 120^. Mr. Sanders, in conclusion, mentioned that tin, 

 lead, and copper, were also found in the Wicklow valleys. 



Mr. Scott exhibited a nugget and the model of a nugget, the former of 

 which and the original of the latter having been taken from the Wick- 

 low district in the year 1796, shortly before the breaking out of the re- 

 bellion. The " model " is a gilt leaden image of what was the largest 

 nugget of rolled gold ever found in Europe, and which weighed twenty -two 

 ounces. Several other models of the same nugget, which is agenuine sample 

 of the Wicklow product, now belong to the mineralogical collection of 

 the Royal Dublin Society. It consists of a mass of gold through which 

 a vein of quartz runs ; and was found by Mr. Scott to weigh 1,500 grains. 



The Chairman said he regretted that Dr. Lloyd had been obliged to 

 leave, as it was his intention to have stated some views entertained by 

 his father respecting the Wicklow gold-mines, which were quite novel. 

 Those views would, however, be communicated by Dr. Lloyd in writing 

 to the Secretary. Dr. Lindsay, of Perthshire, whose paper on the New 

 Zealand gold-fields the meeting had heard, was also well acquainted 

 with those of the county of Wicklow, and he had desired that his 

 paper shoidd be brought before the Irish Geological Society, because he 

 considered that the gold-fields of New Zealand bore a more striking 



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