GIANTS' CAUSEWAY 



2490 



GIBBON 



GIANTS' CAUSE 'WAY, a remarkable group 

 of basaltic rocks on the north coast of County 

 Antrim, Ireland. The causeway proper is a 

 promontory formed of about 40,000 columns, 

 fitting into each other perfectly and jointed 



GIANTS' CAUSEWAY 



horizontally. Some of the pillars are twenty 

 feet in height, and vary in diameter from fif- 

 teen to twenty inches. Different groups are 

 known as the W-ishing Chair, Lady's Fan, 

 Giants' Loom, Giants' Organ, etc. The pecu- 

 liar pillarlike construction of the rocks is de- 

 clared by geologists to result from contraction 

 in the cooling of the lava of which they are 

 composed. The Giants' Causeway derived its 

 name from the legend which ascribes its con- 

 struction to Finn M'Coul, or Fingal, who 

 bridged the channel from Ireland to Scotland 

 in order that the giants might pass from one 

 country to the other. 



In 1883 an electric railway, the first in the 

 United Kingdom, connecting the Causeway 

 with neighboring towns, was opened for traf- 

 fic. An admission fee is charged, as in 1898 

 the Causeway and certain neighboring terri- 

 tory were declared to be private property. 



GIBBON, gib'un, a small, tailless anthropoid, 

 or manlike ape, belonging to the same family 

 as the gorilla and chimpanzee. It is found in 

 all parts of the East Indies, where it inhabits 

 the forests, living almost entirely in the trees 

 and traveling with great rapidity through the 

 tangled growth. Its color is black, with a 

 white fringe or beard surrounding the face. 

 Gibbons are extremely awkward on the ground 

 and move with difficulty, using their extremely 

 long arms to balance themselves, but never 

 creeping on all fours. At night they sleep 

 curled up in -a ball in the branches of trees or 

 on rudely constructed platforms. 



Their natural food consists of fruit and nuts, 

 though they frequently kill and eat small 



birds. They are easily tamed, and when in 

 captivity soon acquire a taste for all cooked 

 foods. The long-armed gibbon of Sumatra is 

 said to display wonderful agility in springing 

 from tree to tree, clearing with ease a space of 

 forty feet. In their native haunts gibbons are 

 very noisy, chattering incessantly; they are 

 particularly so in the early morning, when 

 they greet daylight with a concert of long- 

 drawn-out "wa-hoos." The origin of the name 

 is unknown. 



GIBBON, EDWARD (1737-1794), was an Eng- 

 lish historian whose reputation in connection 

 with a great history of the Roman Empire 

 makes his fame secure. He was born in Put- 

 ney, Surrey. Owing to much illness in child- 

 hood his educa- 

 tion was irregu- 

 lar. He entered 

 Magdalen Col- 

 lege, Oxford Uni- 

 versity, in 1752, 

 and was expelled 

 after fourteen 

 months on ac- 

 count of his pro- 

 fession of the 



Roman Catholic EDWARD GIBBON 



faith. He soon . His wr i t i n g was as poet- 

 renounced this ical as a Picture." 

 creed, doubtless influenced by the arguments 

 of the Calvinistic minister at Lausanne, under 

 whose instruction he was placed following his 

 expulsion from Oxford. In 1758 he returned 

 to England, and in 1774 was elected to Parlia- 

 ment. 



His life work was the History of the Decline 

 and Fall of the Roman Empire, which is con- 

 sidered not only one of the greatest histories 

 ever written, but a remarkable literary achieve- 

 ment. While it has been attacked in minor 

 points, in essentials it is still the standard au- 

 thority for the period it covers. It is really a 

 history of the civilized world for the thirteen 

 centuries during which paganism was weaken- 

 ing and Christianity was gaining a foothold. 

 An important criticism is that owing to the 

 author's lack of religious belief at the time the 

 history was written he belittled the influence 

 of Christianity as a civilizing factor. Byron 

 termed Gibbon "the lord of irony," referring 

 to his stately and measured style. Some crit- 

 ics consider the historian at his best in his 

 autobiography, which was published after his 

 death under the title of Memories of My Life 

 and Writings. ,/ 



