162 «N THE BASALTIC COUNTRY IN IRELAND. 



and affords In a geological point of* view, Nature * has been very kind 



to Us jwnW. to tm s district, for not content with assembling together in 

 a small space so many of her curious productions, and ar- 

 ranging them with more regularity and steadiness than in 

 any other country described, she has condescended occa- 

 sionally to withdraw the veil, and lay herself open to view, 

 often exhibiting a spectacle equally gratifying to the admirer 

 of magnificence, and to the curious naturalist, who can here, 

 by simple inspection, trace the arrangements, which are to 

 be discovered elsewhere only by penetrating beneath the 

 surface of the earth* 

 Particularly As soon as we enter the basaltic area, we begin to perceive 



th oast traces of these arrangements; as we advance farther north, 

 they increase; and in the tract near the shore, and espe<* 

 cially at the island of Rathlih, which seems to have come 

 fresher from the hand of nature than the rest of our area, the 

 stratification of the whole is perfectly visible, and the nature 

 of the several strata laid open to us at their abrupt and pre- 

 cipitous terminations. 

 To the south- To the southward we perceive the distinctive features 

 tinct. abate, and wear away; the basaltic stratification indeed re- 



mains, but is n6 longer displayed to us in the same manner; 

 the neat, prismatic, internal construction of the strata, which 

 occdrs so frequently on and near the coast, is scarcely to be 

 met with at a distance from it; a rude columnar appearance 

 is all we find, and that but rarely. 

 O the north It is at the periphery of our area, and especially at its 

 pTeteiv open nortnern side, that every thing is displayed to the greatest 

 advantage; here we have perpendicular facades often con- 

 tinuous for miles, and every separate stratum completely 

 open to examination. 

 Four most Of these facades, four are more distinguished by their 



s l * grandeur and beauty than the rest, Magilligan Rock, Cave 

 Hill, Bengore, and Fairhead. 



The two former are at the extreme points of the north- 

 west diagonal of our area, and nearly forty miles asunder ; 



* By the word Nature, which frequently occurs in the course of this 

 Memoir, 1 always mean, according to Ray's definition, the wisdom of 

 God in the creation of the world. 



they 



