Geology — St. Helena and County of Antrim. 247 



had examined the materials of which the island was formed, and 

 the manner in which thev were arrangedj with much accuracy. 



My author does not claim to be a scientific naturalist, but he 

 is obviously a very acute observer ; and though he seems to have 

 adopted, without examination, the volcanic theory of the origin 

 of basaltes, which was in fashion v.'hen he left Europe, he pos- 

 sesses a degree of fairness and impartiality which I have seldom 

 met with in naturalists attached to a particular opinion or 

 theory. My friend was induced to send me this pleasant little 

 volume, because the picture it gave of St. Helena bore so striking 

 a resemblance to the features of the basaltic area in the north of 

 Ireland, that had so much occupied the attention of each of us, 

 and to which my own observations on the natural history of my 

 country had been neariv limited. 



It was not only the similitudes in the original arrangement of 

 each of these districts, which were numerous and obvious, but 

 also the differences, that strongly arrested my attention; the 

 former affording demonstration of the exact similarity of ori- 

 ginal formation, while the latter proved irresistibly that the 

 posterior operations of nature, v;hich have taken place in St. He- 

 lena and in our part of Ireland, though in some instances the 

 same, are very different in others. 



Hence a new field is opened, and new materials afforded for 

 geological discussion, particularly interesting to me, as the facts 

 which I observed in my own country, that led me to sustain po- 

 j-itions sometimes deemed paradoxical, are not only exhibited in 

 equal at)undance in St. Helena, but also so diversified as to af- 

 ford new arguments and further demonstration of the truth of 

 those positions. 



That island has now acquired a new interest — the eyes of the 

 world are directed towards it and its new inhabitant. The Latin 

 poet seems to allude to this sequestered spot, as now colonized, 

 which he describes, 



" Ut nijuis .'Esici rupein, scopiilosque frequentes 

 Exiilibus niaj^nis '* 



While the English nation is making such exertions to secure 

 the comfort of this great exile— let us find amusing employment 

 for him ; let us direct his attention to the natural history of his 

 new country, and we shall probably protect him from the misery 

 into which the exiled Ovid fell ; and from disgracing himself by 

 unmanly com])laints, as that poet did, on the harshness of a cli- 

 mate nearly as mild as that of St. Helena itself. 



I too have prepared a source of entertainment for him, as my 

 pupil Colonel Wilkes, the late governor, after showing the great 

 puccess with which he raised Fiorin grass at Madras, since his 



Q 4 appointment 



