صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

ment for my excurfion; and yef terday Mr. Mills and I vifited the fpot, where fo much pure gold has been of late taken up, being diftant about five miles from this place.

About feven miles weftward of Arklow, in the county of Wicklow, there is a very high hill perhaps 6 or 700 yards above the fea, called Croughan Kinfhelly, one of whofe NE abutments, or but treffes, is called Balinnagore, to which the afcent may be made in half or three quarters of an hour. Should you have Jacob Nevil's map of the county of Wicklow, published in 1760, at hand, by cafting your eye on the river Ovo, which runs by Arklow, at about four miles above the latter place, you will perceive the conflux of of two confiderable ftreams, and of a third about half a mile higher up, close to a bridge. By tracing this laft to its fource, you will come to a place, fet down in the map Ballinvalley; this is a ravine between two others, that run down the fide of the hill into a femicircular, or more properly, femi-elliptical valley, which extends in breadth from one fummit to the other of the boundary of the valley, and across the valley three-quarters of a mile, or fomewhat lefs. The hollow fide of the hill forms the termination of the valley, and down which run the three ravines abovementioned. At their junction, the brook affumes the name of Ballinafloge; at this place the defcent is not very rapid, and fo continues a hanging level for about a quarter of a mile, or fomewhat more when the valley grows narrower, and the fides of the brook become fteeper; and it thould feem that, fome rocky bars across the courie

of the brook have formed t'e gravelly beds, above, over, and through which the ftream flows, and in which the gold is found. The bed of the brook, and the adjacent banks of gravel on each fide, for near a quarter of a mile in length, and for 20 or 30 yards in breadth, have been entirely ftirred and washed by the peasants of the country, who amounted to many hundreds, at work at a time, whilt they were permitted to fearch for the metal.

A gentleman, who faw them at work, told me, he counted above 300 women at one time, befides great numbers of men and children.

The ftream runs down to the NE from the hill, which feems to confift of a mass of schiftus and quartz ; for on examination of the principal ravine, which is now washed clean by the late heavy rains, the bottom confifted of fchiftus, interfected at different diftances, and in various places, by veins of quartz, and of which fubftances the gravelly beds at the bottom, where the gold is found, feem to confift.

Large tumblers of quartz are thickly fcattered over the furface of the top of the hill, under a turbary of confiderable thicknefs, upon the removal of which thefe tumblers appear.

I fhall not take up your time in attempting to give a minute geolo. gical defcription of this part of the country, as I have prevailed with Mr. Mills (who from his minute examinations, and practical knowledge, is fo converfant with the mineralogy of this county), to undertake that tatk, which I am perfuaded he will perform to your fatisfaction.

The gold has been found in

maffes of all fizes, from thofe of fmall grains to that of a piece of the weight of five ounces, which beautiful specimen is intended for the cabinet of a nobleman, adored in this country, and not lefs refpected by his friends in England, and which, I dare to fay, you will fhortly have an opportunity of feeing in London. One piece of 22 ounces has been taken up, and which, I am told is to be presented to his majesty.

In our vifit to this extraordinary place, we were most hofpitably entertained by Mr. Graham, of Ballycoage, whofe houfe is not more than a mile from the gold mine : from him and his brothers I learnt, that about 25 years ago, or more, one Dunaghoo, a fchoolmafter, refident near the place, ufed frequently to entertain them with accounts of the richness of the valley in gold; and that this man had used to go in the night, and break of day, to fearch for the treasure ; and thefe gentlemen, with their fchoolfellows, used to watch the old man in his excurfions to the hill, to frighten him, decming him to be deranged in his intellects : however, the idea of his treasure did at last actually derange him.

John Byrne told me, that about 11 or 12 years ago, when he was a boy, he was fishing in this brook, and found a piece of gold, of a quarter of an ounce, which was fold in Dublin; but that upon one of his brothers telling him it must have been dropped into the brook by accident, he gave over all thoughts of fearching for more. Charles Toole, a miner at Cronbane, tells me, he heard of this difcovery at the time but gave no VOL. XXXVIII.

credit to it, as he never found any gold, and lives very near the place. I am credibly informed too, that a goldfmith in Dublin has, every year, for 11 or 12 years, bought four or five ounces of gold, brought conftantly by the fame perfon, but not John Byrne.

Thus, fir, you have all I could learn refpecting this important event; which is at your service to lay before the Royal Society, fhould you not have been furnished with an account from an abler pen. I am, &c.

JOHN LLOYD.

P.S. I am told the name of the brook, where the gold is found, is, in Irith, Aughatinavought.

A mineralogical account of the Native
Gold lately difcovered in Ireland.
In a Letter from Abraham Mills,
fq. to Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart.
K. B. P. R. S.

Cronebane Copper Mines, nar
Rathdrum, Nov. 21, 1795.

SIR,

THE extraordinary circumstance of native gold being found in this vicinity, early excited my attention, and led me to feize the first opportunity that prefented itself, after my late arrival here, to inspect the place where the difcovery was made.

I went thither on Tuesday, the 3d of this month, with Mr. Lloyd, of Havodynos, and Mr. Weaver. The former having given you fome account of the circumftances which attended the original difcovery, and, fince he left me, a favourable day having enabled me to take a feCe

cond

cond view of the adjacent country, I shall now attempt to defcribe the general appearance, and add fuch further information as has come to my knowledge.

The workings which the peafantry recently undertook, are on the north-eatt tide of the mountain Croughan Kinshelly, within the barony of Arklow, and county of Wicklow, on the lands of the earl of Carysfort, wherein the earl of Ormond claims a right to the minerals, in confequence (as I have been informed), of a grant in the reign of king Henry the fecond, by prince John, during his command of his father's forces in Ireland; which grant was renewed and confirmed by queen Elizabeth, and again by King Charles the fecond.

The fummit of the mountain is the boundary be ween the counties of Wicklow and Wexford; feven English miles weft from Arklow, ten to the forth-welward of Rathdrum, and fix fouth-wefterly from Cronebane mines; by eftimation about fix hundred yards above the level of the fea. It extends W by N and E by S, and firetches away to the north-eafiward, to Ballycoage, where thafts have formerly been funk, and fome copper and magnetic iron ore has been found; and thence to the NE there extends a tract of mineral country, eight miles in length, running through the lands of Ballymurtagh, Ballygahan, Tigrony, Cronebane, Connery, and Kilmacce, in all which veins of copper ore are found; and terminating at the late quarry at Baltabarny.

On the Eigheft part of the

mountain are bare rocks, being a variety of argillite, whofe joints range NNE and SSW, hade to the SSW, and in one part include a rib of quartz, three inches wide, which follows the direction of the firata. Around the rocks, for fome diftance, is found ground, covered with heath; defcending to the eastward, there is springy ground, abounding with coarie grais; and below that, a very extentive bog, in which the turf is from four to nine feet thick, and beneath it, in the fubftratum of clay, are many angular fragments of quartz, containing chlorite, and ferruginous earth. Below the turbary the ground falls with a quick defcent, and three ravines are obferved. The central one, which is the moft confiderable, has been worn by torrents, which derive their fource from the bog; the others are formed lower down the mountain by fprings, which unit ng with the former, below their junction the gold has been found, The fmaller have not water foffcient to wash away the incumbent clay, fo as to lay bare the fubitratum; and their beds only contain gravel, confitting of quartz with chlorite, and other fubitances of which the mountain confifis. The great ravine prefents a more interefting alpect; the water in its defcent has, in a very thort diftance from the bog, entirely caricd off the clay, and confiderably worn down the fubftrata of rock, which it has laid open to inipcetion.

Defcending along the bed of the great ravine, whefe general courie is to the eastward, a yellow argilla

cecus fhiftus is first feen; the lami- from Rathdrum, which, after their junction, take the general name of the Ovo, that difcharging itself into the fea near the town of Arklow, forms an harbour for veifels of fmall burthen.

næ are much thattered, are very thin, have a flight hade to the SSW, and range ESE and WNW. Included within the fhift, is a vein of compact barren quartz, about three feet wide, ranging NE and SW; below this is another vein, about nine inches wide, having the fame range as the former, and hading to the northward, confifting of quartz, including ferruginous earth. Lower down, is a vein of a compact aggregate fubftance, ap parently compounded of quartz, ochraceous earth, chert, minute particles of mica, and fome little argillite, of unknown breadth, ranging E and W, hading faft to the fouthward, and including ftrings of quartz, from one or two inches thick, the quartz containing ferruginous earth. The yellow argillaceous fhiftus is again feen with its former hade and range; and then, adjacent to a quartz vein, is laminated blue argillaceous fhiftus, ranging NE and SW, and hading SE, which is afterwards feen varying its range and hade, running ENE and WSW, and hading NNW; lower down, the blue thift is obferved more compact, though fill laminated. The ground, lefs fteep, becomes fpringy, is inclofed, and the ravine, hallower, has depofited a contiderable quantity of clay, fand, and gravel. Following the courfe of the ravine, or, as it may now more properly be called, the brook, arrive at the road which leads to Arklow; here is a ford, and the brook has the Irish name of Aughatinavought (the river that drowned the old man); hence it defcends to the Aughrim river, just above its confluences with that

The lands of Ballinvally are to the fouthward, and the lands of Ballinagore to the northward, of the ford, where the blue thiftus rock whofe joints are nearly vertical, is feen ranging ENE and WSW, including mall ftrings of quartz, which contain ferruginous earth. The fame kind of earth is alfo feen in the quartz, contained in a vein from ten to twelve inches wide, ranging ENE and WSW, and hading to the fouthward which has been laid open in forming the Arklow road.

Here the valley is from twenty to thirty yards in width, and is covered with fubflanges wathed down from the mountain, which on the fides have accumulated to the depth of about twelve feet. A thin ftratum of vegetable foil lies uppermott; then clay, mingled with fine fand, composed of small particles of quartz, mica, and shift; beneath which the fame fubftances are larger, and constitute a bed of gravel, that allo contains nodules of fine grained iron ftone, which produces 50 per cent. of crude fron: incumbent on the rock are large tumblers of quartz, a variety of argillite and thiftus; many pieces of the quartz are perfectly pure, others attached to the fhiftus, others contain chlorite, pyrites, mica, and ferruginous earth, and the arfenical cubical pyrites frequently occurs, imbed ded in the blue fhiftus. In this mass of matter, before the workings began, the brook had formed Cc a

its

its channel down to the furface of the rock, and between fix and feven feet wide, but in times of floods extended itself entirely over the valley.

Refearches have been made for the gold, amidit the fand and gravel along the run of the brook, for near half a mile in length; but it is only about one hundred and fifty yards above, and about two hundred yards below the ford, that the trials have been attended with much fuccefs: within that space, the valley is tolerably level, and the banks of the brook have not more than five feet of fand and gravel above the rock; added to this, it takes a small turn to the fouthward, and, confequently, the rude furfaces of the fhiftus rock in fome degree cross its courfe, and form natural impediments to the particles of gold being carried further down the ftream, which fill lower has a more rapid defcent; befides, the rude manner in which the country people worked, feldom enabled them to penetrate to the rock, in thofe places where the fand and gravel were of any material depth. Their method was, to turn the courfe of the water wherever they deemed neceflary, and then, with any inftruments they could procure, to dig holes down to the rock, and by wafhing, in bowls and fieves, the fand and gravel they threw out, to feparate the particles of gold which it contained; and from the flovenly and hatly way in which their operations were performed, much gold moft probably escaped their fearch; and that indeed actually appears to have been the cafe, for fince the late rains washed the clay and gravel which had been thrown up,

gold has been found lying on the furface. The fituation of the place, and the conftant command of wa ter, do, however, very clearly point out the great facility with which the gold might be feparated from the trafh, by adopting the mode of working practifed at the best managed tin ftream works in the county of Cornwall; that is, entirely to remove (by machinery) the whole cover off the rock, and then wash it in proper buddles and fieves. And by thus continuing the operations, conftantly advancing in the ravine towards the mountain, as long as gold fhould be found, the vein that forms its matrix might probably be laid bare.

The difcovery was made public, and the workings began, early in the month of September laft, and continued till the 15th of October, when a party of the Kildare mili tia arrived, and took poffeffion by order of government; and the great concourfe of people, who were bufily engaged in endeavouring to procure a fhare of the treafure, immediately defitted from their labour, and peaceably retired.

Calculations have been made, that during the foregoing period, gold to the amount of three thou fand pounds Irish fterling was fold to various perfons; the average price was three pounds fifteen fhillings per ounce; hence eight hundred ounces appear to have been collected within the fhort space of fix weeks.

The gold is of a bright yellow colour, perfectly malleable; the specific gravity of an apparently clean piece 19,000. A fpecimen, aflayed here by Mr. Weaver, in the moift way, produced from 24

grains,

« السابقةمتابعة »