and County of Antrim. 249 



strata of the island appears evidently to be basaltes ; it is always 

 regulailv fissured, and running in distinct layers; these layers 

 have always somewhat of a columnar appearance." 



« The front of the columns is sometimes flat, but more ge- 

 nerallv ))roininent and angular." , , • w 



Again, "We sometimes find a series of columns ot equal height, 

 resembling a piece of artificial work." 



Are not these series the beautiful groups so abundant with us, 

 to which the country-people give the name of organs ? 



There is not anv circumstance in our Antrim tagades which 

 has struck me more than the general tendency of the basaltes to 

 assume a columnar form, though often very nnperrect ; and this 

 not from decay, but from failure in the original effort to obtain 



greater regularity. . tt i cc -i 



The same effort of Nature is observable at M. Helena:— In 

 the most irregular masses we can always observe a tendency to- 

 wards this columnar form." o u i a 

 The next material I shall mention common to St. Helena and 

 Antrim, and disposed exactly In the same manner In each, is 

 ochrh; this bright red substance Mr. St. Fond sustains to be 

 hasalt which has undergone some chemical process of Nature 

 v^ith which we are not acciuaiated. In this opinion I have ac- 

 quiesced : but my author calls it clay, and it seems equally abun- 

 dant and similarlv arranged In both countries. 



« Numerous layers of clav; that of a bright red is the most 

 common, often seen In layers of only a few inches thick; these 

 red veins traverse the whole island." 



This red matter, with mv author clay, with me rock, is dis- 

 posed everywhere as with us : " In the heart of the rock we find 

 nodules of 'clav, and among the clay nodules of rock." 



Tiiere is not any circumstance on our whole coast, that al- 

 ways struck me more forcibly, tiian the transitions of our strata 

 into each other In a vertical direction; for though there be a 

 {neat difference between the component rocks, both in material 

 and In the principle of internal construction, yet they Invariably 

 pass into each other nearly per sallum, and we never find the 

 solidity or continuity of the so different materials interrupted. 

 Such, too, seems to be the style of the junctions of the strata at 

 St. Helena—"' The rock In some places terminates, above and 

 below, in indurated blue or black clay, continuous with it ; but 

 passing so Insensiljly into It, that we cannot discern at what point 

 the stone ends or the clav begins." 



1 discovered a very curious fact, sometimes, though rarely oc- 

 curring with us. In a few distinct strata; that is, cavities ; some 

 now, the rest probably once, filled with pure fresh water, as in a 

 quarry or stratum, open at Ballylagan, the stratum at Islainore, 



