82 , ■ . 



An arch friend, amused at the discoveries these saga- 

 cious gentlemen were making, in natural histor}'^, gave me 

 a neat view of the profile of the cliff, beyond the Giant's 

 Causeway; with a kelp-kiln, burning on the Causeway it- 

 self, and people busil}" employed. Underneath, he gave 

 the following explanation ; 



The natives, at the Giant's Causeway, making lava for Dr. 

 Troil and Mr. Whitehurst. 



A new theory has sprung out of the volcanic one; as 

 maintained by I\Ir. Desmarest, and the other gentlemen, 

 whose Avorks I have just now observed upon. Of this theory, 

 1 cannot avoid taking notice; since it is warmly defended, . 

 in his Letters on Antrim, by Dr. Hamilton, who spent much 

 time in our basaltic country; and also (as I hear) supported, 

 from a chair in our university, by a gentleman, whose able 

 discharge of his duty, as professor, has done him much 

 honour. 



This theory supposes basalt pillars to be formed, by crys- 

 tallization, in the interior of the craters of volcanos; and 

 not, as hitherto supposed, in the currents of lava. And 

 Dr. Hamilton (Lett. VH. Part 2.) labours much to prove, 

 that currents of liquid lava are totally unfit for the forma- 

 tion of crystals; while " the interior of the mountain, at its 

 " lowest base, beneath the surfoce of the earth," is admirably 

 adapted for the purpose. 



This new opinion seems to me to be founded, on a total 

 .dereliction of Mr. Desmarest's premises, and a pertinacious 



adherence 



