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C5G PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS, [^ANNO I694. 



An Account of several late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North, 

 towards the Straits of Magellan, the South Seas, the vast Tracts of Land 

 beyond Hollandia Nova, ^c. Also towards Nova Zemhla, Greenland or 

 Spitsberg, Geenland or Engronland, &c. By Sir John Narborough, Capt. 

 Jasmen Tasman, Capt. John JVood, and Frederick Marten, of Hamburgh. 

 To which are annexed a large Introduction and Supplement. The whole illus- 

 trated tvith Charts and Figures. London, 1694, 8i;o. N° 21 1, p. 166.* 

 Account of the Giant's Causeway, in the North of Ireland. By the Rev. Dr. 



Sam. Foley. N° 212, p. 170. 

 The giant's causeway is about 8 English miles north-east from the town of 

 Colerain, and about 3 from the Bush-Mills, almost directly north. It runs 

 from the bottom of a high hill into the sea, how far is not known ; but at low- 

 water its length is about 600 feet, and its breadth in the broadest place 240 

 feet, in the narrowest 120 feet ; it is also very unequal in height, being in some 

 places about 36 feet high above the level of the Strand, and in other places 

 about 15 feet. It consists of many thousand pillars, which stand mostly per- 

 pendicular to the plane of the horizon, and close to one another ; but we could 

 not discern whether they run down under ground like a quarry or not. Some 

 of the pillars are very long, and higher than the rest ; others short and broken : 

 some for a pretty large space of an equal height, so that their tops make an 

 even plane surface ; many of them are imperfect, cracked, and irregular ; others 

 entire, uniform, and handsome, and these of different shapes and sizes. We 

 found none square, but almost all pentagonal, or hexagonal ; only a few had 7 

 sides ; and many more pentagons than hexagons ; but they are all irregular, 

 none having their sides of equal breadth; some of the pillars are 15, some 18 

 inches, some again 2 feet in diameter ; none of them are one entire stone, but 

 every pillar consists of several joints or pieces, of which some are 6, some 12, 

 some 18 inches, some 2 feet deep. These pieces lie close upon one another, 

 not joining vs^ith flat surfaces, but one of them is always concave in the middle, 

 the other convex. These joints are not always placed alike ; for in some pillars 

 the convexity is always upwards, and in others it is always downwards. They 

 always lie as close as possible for one stone to lie on another, so that on the 

 outside of the pillars you can only discern the crack that joins the two stones. 

 When you force them asunder, both the concave and convex surfaces are very 

 smooth, as are also the sides of the pillars, which touch each other, being of a 

 whitish free-stone colour, but a finer and closer grit ; whereas on breaking 

 some pieces off them, the inside appears like dark marble. The pillars stand 



* So many collections of voyages, and histories of maritime discoveries, are now extant, that it is 

 deemed unnecessary to reprint a detail of the contents of the above-mentioned work. 



