ON THE BASALTIC COUNTRY IN IRELAND. 247 



The next argument is still more conclusive; the boun- and occur 

 dary of our basaltic area on its north side is for twenty-five e£ * * • In n • 

 ' miles also the confine of sea and land ; so far it is natural 

 to ascribe its features and characteristic marks to the ac- .. 

 tion of the powerful clement that beats against it, But 

 when that precipitous boundary ceases to be the confine of 

 sea and land, turns southward towards the interior, and be- 

 comes thu line df demarcation between the basaltic and 

 schistose country on the west, it still preserves its former 

 character; that is, of a range or ridge of very high land, 

 steep to the exterior, and sometimes cut down vertically 

 into facades, like its northern part that lines the shore. 



Thus MagiUigqn Rock, (four miles inland) is not inferior Instances; 

 in magnificence to any of our facades on the coast, its per- 

 pendicular section is one hundred and seventy feet, and this 

 continuous for a mile; the facades at Bienbraddock are nine 

 miles farther inland, and those of Monyneeny thirteen; 

 while the base of the lowest of these perpendicular precipi- 

 ces is elevated 1400 feet above the sea, 



The same style prevails on the east side of our basaltic 

 area, after its boundary ceases to- be the confine of sea and 

 land ; for the limestone facades at Garron Point, (consider- 

 ably abov« the level of the sea) exactly resemble those of 

 JDunluce and Kcabaan at the water edge; and Cave Hill 

 (several miles from the sea, and nearly one from the shallow 

 estuary of Belfast,) exhibits basaltic facades at the height 

 of one thousand feet, precisely similar, and little inferior to 

 those of MagiUigan. 



The exact resemblance between our inland facades (on the These resemble 

 Cast and west sides of our area) to those on the shore, those on *&« 

 proves them to be all effects from the same cause, and that * 

 our accumulated strata have in all these similar instances 

 been cut down vertically by the same agent, and that thjs 

 agent was not the sea. 



Nor has this powerful agent confined its operations to our similar appear; 

 coast, or to the periphery of our basaltic area ; we can trace aaccs iu thein 8 

 it over its whole surface; we find throughout its interior, basaltic coun- 

 similar, though very diminutive abruptions, executed pre- try. 

 cisely in the same manner, that is, strata cut across by ^ 

 Jong vertical facade, their planes on the upper side perfectly 



undisturbed. 



