VOL. XX.] FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. '281 



long to cover the whole body, when stooping ; of which kind were likewise 

 those of the Principes and Triarii. Whereas the description that the ano- - 

 nymous author of Roma Illustrata with Fabricius's Notes, gives in his Armatura 

 Equitum, comes the nearest to this, Scutum sive Parmam habebant ex bovillo 

 corio, arte leviter durato, but then he adds, eoque mero, nulla rnaterie sub- 

 jecta, omitting not only the ornamental studs, but the iron work, which 

 Camillus first contrived as a defence against the immense swords oTthe Gauls. 



So/ne additional Observations on the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland. By Dr. 



Tho. Molyneux. N° '241, p. 200. 



The few circumstances, that are any way material, contained in this paper, 

 above what were in the former accounts of this phenomenon, are as follow. 



The figures of the columns, better examined, show that there was a mistake 

 committed as well in answering one of the queries relating to this causeway, 

 as in the account that is given of it; where it is said, that among the columns 

 " there are none square, but almost all pentagonals or hexagonals, only a few 

 are observed that have seven sides, but more pentagons than hexagons ;" whereas 

 it is certain, there are not only in this pile quadrangular, but also triangular 

 and octangular pillars, though no notice was taken at that time of any such, 

 by reason they are much fewer in number than those other figured columns. 

 But this sort of stone is not more remarkable for being cut thus naturally into 

 regular geometrical figures, than for being found in such plenty and vast abun- 

 dance in many parts of this country, for 4 or 5 miles about. Other curiously 

 shaped stones, as the trochites, the astroites, the lapides judaici, the echinitae 

 pellucidi, and such like, wheresoever discovered in the world, are always but few 

 in number, and only met with in small parcels, dispersed up and down : but^ 

 nature has framed such an immense quantity of this prodigious stone here a!- \ 

 together, that she seems more than ordinarily profuse of her elaborate work- 

 manship. 



For besides what goes under the vulgar name of the Giant's Causeway, 

 which itself alone is of a great extent, at least 75 feet longer than what it 

 was first said to be, and how much farther it may run into the sea, none 

 can tell ; there are many other collections of the same kind of pillars, situated 

 in and about this place ; as two smaller, -but more imperfect causeways, as we 

 may call them, that both lie at some distance on the left hand of the great 

 one, facing the north : and a little farther into the sea, some rocks show them- 

 selves above water, when the tide is low, that seem all made still of the same 

 stone. And if you ascend towards the land in the hill above the Causeway, 

 next and immediately adjoining to it, you meet with more of the same sort of 



VOL. IV. O o 



