1 them. In short, we know alfo from hiftory, that Ireland was a civilized and polished kingdom, when, in many parts of Europe, mankind were still in a favage ftate, or degenerating into the oppofite extreme of a depraved effeminacy. It was the feat of learning, the refuge of the philofopher; and the few fparks of fcience which remained, after the irruption of the Goths, were there kept alive and cherished in this office they fhared with Jona, and fome others of the West ern iflands. Our author, with all the genuine, with all the amiable warmth of patriotifm, expatiates on this fubject, and illuftrates it from refpectable authorities. : Mr. Hamilton next defcribes the falmon fifhery on this coaft; as well as fome of the old caftles, which introduce fragments of the local history: he relates too with feeling, an interesting little modern tale, with which he was accidentally acquainted. He next proceeds to the bafaltic columns, and gives the hiftory of the obfervations and opinions of philofophers on this fubject. Bafaltes is now fo well known, that we need not particularly defcribe its appearance, or its joints. Mr. Hamilton feems to mention the concave and convex endings too gene rally in many inftances, they are terminated by a plain furface, and the contiguity of the pillars is not owing to the fum of the contiguous angles being equal to two right angles; but the latter, in every view of theory, must follow neceffarily from the former. We fhall felect his description of the promontory of Pleafkin: it is ftriking, animated, and picturesque. The fummit of Pleaskin is covered with a thin grassy fod, under which lies the natural rock, having generally an uniform hard furface, fomewhat cracked and shivered. At the depth of ten or twelve feet from the fummit, this rock begins to affume a columnar tendency, and forms a range of maffy pillars of bafaltes, which ftand perpendicular to the horizon, prefenting, in the fharp face of the promontory, the appearance of a magnificent gallery or colonade, upward of fixty feet in height. • This colonade is fupported on a folid base of coarfe, black, irregular rock, near fixty feet thick, abounding in blebs and air-holes-but though comparatively irregular, it may be evidently obferved to affect a peculiar figure, tending in many places to run into regular forms, refembling the fhooting of falts and many other fubftances during a hafty crystallization. Under this great bed of stone stands a fecond range of pillars, between forty and fifty feet in height, lefs grofs, and more fharply defined than thofe of the upper tory, many of them, on a clofe view, emulating even the neatnefs of the columns in the Giant's Causeway. This lower range is borne on a layer of red ochre stone, which ferves as a relief to shew it to great advantage. Thefe two admirable natural galleries, together with the interjacent mafs of irregular rock, form a perpendicular height of one hundred and feventy feet; from the bafe of which, the promontory, covered over with rock and grafs, flopes down to the fea for the space of two hundred feet more, making in all a mafs of near four hundred feet in height, which in beauty and variety of its colouring, in elegance and novelty of arrangement, and in the extraordinary magnitude of its objects, cannot readily be rivalled by any thing of the kind at present known.' This description is well contrasted with the following. At the distance of eight miles from hence (as I mentioned before) the promontory of Fairhead raises its lofty fummit more than four hundred feet above the fea, forming the eastern ter'mination of Ballycattle bay. It prefents to view a vast compact mass of rude columnar ftones, the forms of which are extremely grofs, many of them being near one hundred and fifty feet in length, and the texture fo coarfe, as to refemble black fchorle ftone, rather than the clofe fine grain of the Giant's Causeway bafaltes. At the bafe of these gigantic columns lies a wild waste of natural ruins, of an enormous fize, which in the courfe of fucceffive ages have been tumbled down from their foundation by storms, or fome more powerful operations of nature. These massive bodies have fometimes with flood the fhock of their fall, and often lie in groups and clumps of pillars, refembling many of the varieties of artificial ruins, and forming a very novel and ftriking landscape. Á favage wildnefs characterifes this great promontory, at the foot of which the ocean rages with uncommon fury. Scarce a fingle mark of vegetation has yet crept over the hard rock, to diverfify its colouring, but one uniform greynefs clothes the scene all around. Upon the whole, it makes a fine contraft with the beautiful capes of Bengore, where the varied brown fhades of the pillars, enlivened by the red and green tints of ochre and grafs, cafts a degree of life and chearfulness over the different objects.' The magnificence of thefe columns, and profufion with which they seem to be scattered in different parts of the globe, fill the mind with the most awful aftonishment, imprefs it with the most lively fear of a power so tremendous, and an affectionate veneration of him who can controul it. That it was the causeway of giants †, and the remains of a bridge, + In Saxony, a bafaltic mountain is alfo called 'Giant's Hill,' and fimilar names are given to basaltes in other parts of Germany. which which formed the communication between Ireland and the Hebrides, among which Staffa is diftinguished for ftupendous columns, though inferior to those of Antrim, is a natural and obvious thought. It required no knowledge of latitudes and longitudes; for any two points could furely be connected by a ftrait line. It was more inexcufable to attribute them to melting lava, cooled in the fea; fince the forms of melted matter, thus fuddenly cooled, are confused and irregular. The fea, indeed, probably difcovered them at this place, by washing away thofe parts of the earth by which they were furrounded, for they are chiefly found in the most expofed fituations; but it has no other connection with them. Mr. de Buffon's opinion, that they are formed by streams of lava pouring over a cliff into the fea, is inconfiftent with the 'appearances, and unworthy of its author. Independent of Ireland and Staffa, bafaltic columns are found in Silefia near Luben and Wife; in Marienburg and Weilburg, in Naffau; in Lauterbach, Bliften, and other parts of Heffe and Lufatia; in Bohemia, and on the frontiers of Saxony; on the borders of the Rhine, between Andernach and Bonn; in Languedoc and Auvergne, at Velay and Vivarais. We omit the bafaltic appearances in various parts of Italy, because they are in the vicinity of water and what travellers have related of fimilar mountains in Spain and Portugal, is fcarcely clear enough to engage our attention. The cause of thefe ftupendous appearances is, we fear, ftill uncertain: there is little doubt but that they are of volcanic origin, though this opinion is oppofed by Bergman. He found this ftone fimilar to the Swedish trapp, which had not undergone any calcination; and the fpecimens fent to him were without pores. 'The Swedish trapp is a fchorl, fo called from its form, which is generally near that of a trapezium: it is the horn-ftone of Wallerius, a fanciful and improper term, taken from its want of brittleness. There is, indeed, little doubt of the facts: the Swedish trapp has never been melted, and it is exactly fimilar to the bafalt in its conftituent parts. In these ref pects, Mr. Sauffure fteps to our affiftance; and we learn that this ftone really melts into a substance very similar in texture to the bafaltes, without any deftruction of its parts. In fact, he has imitated the feveral volcanic productions, by melting the different ftones from the more impure granites to the Killas rock. Mr. Hamilton corrects an error, both in Faujas de St. Fond, and Bergman, who have faid that ba falt is without pores: when examined by a microscope, or very highly polished, they are generally found; but we strongly fufpect, that in the lower and denfer parts of the columnar mafs, mafs, the pores may have entirely disappeared, though they preferve the diftinctions of lavas by becoming more confpicuous as we approach the furface. Mr. Hamilton thinks, that these columns are formed by crystallization of the lava in cooling; for he fupports the opinion which we have endeavoured to rescue from the objections of Bergman, by very forcible arguments. The theory of cryftallization is fo old, that in fome figures of bafaltes, the columns are reprefented as ending in pyramids; but though old, we fear it is not tenable. We know no inftance of cryftallization, where there are no confiderable vacuities. Those metals which feem to cryftallize in cooling, expand in the procefs; bafaltes, in fome instances, do the fame, for the upper furface is convex ; but it is very certainly fometimes flat, and in others without perceptible pores. We are told by Sauffure, that the particles of which the compacteft granite is formed cryftallize together; and, by Bergman, that the earth of precious ftones is ftrongly concreted in the fame manner; but thefe operations are little understood, and it is rather an abufe of language to apply the fame term to fuch different proceffes, which must be effected in very different ways. Faujas de St. Fond objects to this opinion, on account of the planes and the angles being different both in fize and number, while, in the ftrict operation of cryftallization, there is a remarkable confiftency in both, particularly in the angles, as Romè de l'ffle has proudly boafted:' befides prifms, he obferves, are never found without being crowned with a pyramid. We ought to select our author's answer to fome of the objections to this theory. The only apparent specific difference between the bafaltic cryftals, and those which are produced in our diminutive elaboratories, feems to be, in the complete difunion of the pillars, and in the articulated form which they fometimes exhibit. But this will not appear to be a matter of any importance, when we reflect, that in natural operations of the fame kind, but differing in magnitude, the fame proportions are common ly obferved between the different parts: thus, the fame ratio, which the diameter of a bafaltic pillar bears to the diameter of one of our diminutive crystallizations, will the interval between the pillars of bafaltes bear, to the interval between the parts of our cryftals; and whoever will take the trouble to calculate this distance, will find it fo very fmall, às eafily to admit the different furfaces within the limits of cohefion; fo that no feparability of our cryftals into joints can poffibly take place, from their fmallnefs, though they often bear marks which might lead one to imagine them capable of difunion.” VOL. LXI. March, 1786 P Again, Again, A fecond objection arifes from hence, that the currents of lava which have iffued from Etna and Vefuvius, within the memory of man, have never been known to exhibit this regularity of arrangement. It is therefore faid that experience does abundantly prove the fallacy of the volcanic hypothesis. In reply to this we are told, that it is not in the erupted torrents of thefe volcanoes we are to look for the phænomena of crystallization, but in the interior parts of the mountains themfelves, and under the furface of the earth, where the metallic particles of the lava havenot been dephlogifticated by the accefs of fresh air, and where perfect reft, and the most gradual diminution of temperature, have permitted the parts of the melted mafs to exert their proper laws of arrangement, fo as to affume the form of columnar lava: that we muft wait, until thofe volcanic mountains, which at prefent burn with so much fury, fhall have completed the period of their existence; until the immenfe vaults, which now lie within their bowels, no longer able to fupport the incumbent weight, fhall fall in, and difclofe to view the wonders of the fubterranean world: and then may we expect to behold all the varieties of cryftallization, fuch as muft needs take place in thefe vaft laboratories of nature; then may we hope to fee banks and causeways of bafaltes, and all the bold, and uncommon beauties, which the abrupt promontories of Antrim now exhibit.' Thefe difficulties have contributed to fupport the more modern opinion that they have affumed this form by retraction, probably, by contraction in cooling. Faujas de St. Fond ftrongly fupports this opinion; and, in the neighbourhood-of Vivarais, found a piece of granite actually divided by the feparation of two neighbouring prifms. Sauffure, who has examined the operations of nature with confiderable precifion, agrees in the fame opinion; and even endeavours to explain the reafon of it. As the work is not common in England, we fhall tranflate the paffage. The tendency to divide, by a kind of retraction, into fragments, more or lefs regular, terminated by planes, is a property of argillaceous earth; and this earth communicates the tendency to all the minerals with which it is mixed. We find it even in bafaltes produced, as we have seen, by the fufion of rocks combined with argill, in ether words, the horn ftone.' We fhall not decide on these subjects; though we confefs, if the irregularity is an obftacle to their being formed by cryftallization, they are too regular to be produced by contraction in cooling. We need not enlarge on Bergman, or Kirwan's opinion; though both are ingenious, they are not fo probable as thofe we have detailed. We ought, indeed, to apologise for our digreffion; but as the object |