MODE III. BASALTIN. 45 



canoes which exist, or have existed, in Iceland, 

 the southern skirts of which can alone he said to 

 be known to naturalists, might well authorise us 

 to believe that a chain of volcanoes may have 

 existed in a tract of country, or isles, between 

 the north of Ireland and Faroe, and which have 

 been submerged, the foundations being destroyed 

 by the violence of their own conflagVations, and 

 the fury of the Atlantic ocean. There are 

 indeed, according to Landt, evidences of a vi- 

 treous lava in one of the isles of Faroe; and my 

 intelligent friend Mr. Browne, who has pene- 

 trated so far into Africa, and has pervaded many 

 parts of Asia and Europe, was convinced that 

 he observed a wall of porous lava near Belfast; 

 but still there is no appearance of any craters. 

 Perhaps a disciple of Dolomieu, certainly a great 

 and respected name, " clarum et venerabile no- 

 men" would be contented with one enormous 

 volcano between the north of Ireland and Staffa, 

 and another among the Faroe isles; for the ex- 

 terior chain of the Hebudes is granitic, as are 

 most of the Shetland islands; while the Orkneys 

 consist of argillaceous sand-stone ; and none of 

 them can, on any theory, be said to present vol- 

 canic appearances. 



However this be, as the genuine basalt, that of 



