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it come into existence, and what is that mysterious power of nature that can thus 

 transform the molten rock into forms of such magnitude and beauty ? Tiiese and 

 many like questions must remain but partially answered, but until they are 

 answered, the Causeway will stand an object of the highest interest to the inquiries 

 of the common mind, as well as to those of geological science. 



Let us now transfer ourselves for a moment to the island of Stafla, off the 

 middle of the western coast of Scotland. It is eight miles west of the great 

 island of Mull, and about forty from the proper coast of the mainland. Stafi'a is 

 a mile and a half in circumference, and the surface elevated a hundred feet above 

 the sea, is covered with rich grass that supports thirty cattle for the tenants of the 

 Duke of Argyle. We land from the steamer in small boats, at the eastern side 

 of the island, the only accessible place, and walk over the surface toward the 

 southwest corner. Here we find the highest elevation — 144 feet. On the rude 

 wooden stairs built for the purpose, we descend the cliflf and reach a range 

 of broken basalt columns, exactly similar to, and hardly less grand than the 

 Causeway of Ireland. Along this range of columns, we proceed 150 yards to the 

 west, and, turning a sharp angle, stand at the entrance of Fingal's Cave. Here, 

 springing out far above us, a stupendous gothic archway supports, at a clear 

 height of seventy feet, an entablature of crushed, prismatic basalt, thirij^ feet in 

 thickness. The entire front and inner parts of the cave are composed of range on 

 range of magnificent columns, with beautiful joints and wonderful symmetry of 

 form. The length of the cave within is 230 feet, the roof is of solid masses of 

 basalt, the sides of huge pillars in their usual forms, the pavement of water in 

 ceaseless motion. 



The question now arises, what connection, Mf any, there is between these two 

 similar geological formations, the C.iuseway and the (^ave. One is on the north 

 coast of Ireland, and sloping gently under the sea, points its main ridge northward, 

 exactlj^ toward the Island of Stafi'a. The other, off the west coast of Scotland, a 

 hundred miles away, also slopes gently under the sea, sending its main ridge south- 

 ward toward the Irish Causeway. Looking at the mountain lines of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, we find their general trend is north and south. We find also that the 

 rocky ridge forming Argyleshire — being interrupted by only sixteen miles of shallow 

 water between the Mull of Cantire and the Irish coast — is continued southward by 

 the mountains of Eastern Ireland. These basalt formations, then, are found in tlie 

 slopes of a great mountain valley. We find conditions similar to these in the 

 Valleys of Connecticut, of New South Wales, and of the Hudson river, and these 

 places are famous for their dikes, ridges of basalt columns and trap rock forma- 

 tions. If, then, dikes are formed under such conditions, it seems fair to connect 

 the formation of the Cave and the Causewaj' as two visible portions of a vast dike, 

 whose hidden parts are under tbe land and the sea. The general statement, 

 then, will be this : At a former period a fissure was opened by subterranean 

 force along this mountain valley, extending itself from Staffa to the Irish coast. 

 From this fissure vast quantities of molten rock poured upward, and, on reaching 

 the surface, crystalized into its natural forms. That there are many oblique and 

 horizontal columns maybe explained by the natural action in the dike — the top 

 of the molten mass, crystalizing into columns first, was pushed out and over by 

 the liquid mass risins, from below. Probably the phenomena of the origin of 

 any small dike may apply to the origin of this greater one — it maybe the very 

 magnitude of the formation that deceives the investigator of its origin. 



I give here the most common of the many legends among the Irish, accounting 

 for the formation of the Giant's Causeway : The giant, Fin McCoul, was the 



