GOLD IN IRELAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 355, 30 March 1889, Page 7

GOLD IN IRELAND.

W. A. D. writes to the Times thus :—": — " As Mr Pritchard -Morgan is about to extend the field of his operations to the sister isle, the following extract from the current edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica' may not be uninteresting to jour readers. It is taken from article 'Ireland' (vol. 13, p. 2rB) :— " ' Gold. — From the gold ornaments and crucible ladles and other implements used in the purifying of gold that have been discovered in a bog on the borders of Limerick and Tipperary, it would appear tliat that met.il was manufactured there at a very early-period, and there is a tradition that gold vvns smelted for King 1 Tighearnmas about 1620 (or 915) 8.C., in one of J the valleys of the Liffey, About the end of last century a nugget of gold, 220z, in weight, was found in a tributery of the Ovoca, and, the Government having shortly afterwards tafcen up the enterprise, placer mining was carried on for some years. The gold was from 21 § to 2lf carats fine, the alloy being silver. The total value of the gold obtained at the Government works was £3,675, while gold to the value of over £10,000 was obtained by private enterprise. All the gold has been found in shallow places. Very little gold is found in the iron or quartz veins, although peices of iron are always found with the gold and quartz is sometimes attached to the nuggets. The gold usually occurs in small grains, but nuggets of considerable weigh tare sometimes found.' "