196 On the basaltic Surface of the Counties 



miles further inland, and those of* Monyneeny thirteen ; while 

 the hase of the lowest of these perpendicular precipices 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 

 Jand ; for the limestone facades at Garron Point (consi- 

 derably above the level of the sea) exactly resemble those of 

 Dunluce and Kenbaan 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 Magilligan, 



The exact resemblance between our inland facades (on 

 the east and west sides of our area) to those on the shore, 

 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 this 

 agent was not the sea. 



Nor has this powerful agent confined its operations to our 

 coast, or to the periphery of our basaltic area j we can trace 

 it over its whole surface; we find throughout its interior, 

 similar, though very diminutive abruptions, executed pre- 

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

 long vertical fagade, their planes on the upper side perfectly 

 undisturbed, while on the lower side all the materials of 

 which that part of the stratum was once composed are com- 

 pletely carried off. — (See 6th fact.) 



We are now unavoidably led into a discussion of a queS- 

 - tion which has at all times occupied the attention of natu- 

 ralists. 



, Whence arise the Inequalities with which the Surface of the 

 Earth is so exceedingly diversified P 



I shall not attempt to encounter this question generally, 

 nor to extend my inquiries beyond the limits I have pre- 

 scribed to myself; but I shall try whether the curious facts 

 so profusely exhibited over our basaltic area, throw any light 

 upon the formation of our own inequalities, or lead us a step 

 8 towards 



