174 ON THE BASALTIC COUNTRY IN IRELAND 



notfallen down such, no doubt, was "Mr. Whitehurst's idea, when he de* 

 scribes one of these scenes its " an awful wreck of the ter- 

 *' raqueous globe." 



But a more attentive observer will soon discover, that 

 these capricious irregularities, whether in the form of rude 

 cones, as at Bcanyn Daana, and the west side of Pleskin; 

 or towers, as at the dike of Port Cooan, and Castro Levit, at 

 the foot of Magilligan facade; or even spires and obelisks, 

 as to the westward of Kenbaan, and at the Bull of Rath* 

 lin; yet all of these once formed part of the original mass 

 of coast, stratified like it, and their strata still correspond 

 in material and inclination with those in the contiguous pre- 

 cipice". 



Perpendicular g. These vertical sections or abruptions of our strata are 

 Mdufthft 1 * ky no means confined to the steeps that line our coast; the 



cw&t. remaining boundary of our basaltic area has several of them 



equally grand ; and similar abruptions, or sections (though 

 not so deep) are scattered over a great part of our area, and 

 especially on the ridges of our hills and mountains, which 

 are cut down in many places like a stair by the sudden ab- 

 ruption of the basaltic stratum. 



The materials 9. Wherever the strata are thus suddenly cut off, whe- 



OQoue sldeof t h er it be a mass of accumulated strata, as in the facades 

 these carried . .... v 



•tray. on our coast, or solitary strata, as in the interior; the ma- 



terials on one side of the abruption are completely carried 

 away, without a fragment being left behind, while on its 

 other side the untouched stratum remains intire and undis- 

 turbed. 



I shall not proceed to apply these facts to support, or in- 

 validate, any of the numerous theories, which have given 

 rise to so much controversy, in which I myself (as you 

 know) have borne some part; I shall look to nature alone, 

 without much reference to opinious, and shall endeavour 

 to trace, by the marks she has left behind her, some of the 

 grand operations she once executed on the surface of our 

 globe. 

 TheSdivisions Varro divided the time elapsed since the beginning of the 

 •f history ap- world x into three portions, which he distinguished by the 

 turaA JbtoryT" names, prolepticum, fabulosum, and historicum. 



The first comprehended the period of abiolute darkness ; 



