TOL. LXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 223 



probably greatly contribute towards giving those stones their singular and constant 

 form. They seem to have acquired that form, in a different manner from that 

 which influenced the strata and veins of other mountains. Lastly, no marks or 

 impressions of any organicalbodiesarefoundeitherin theoutor inside of these stones. 



From all these considerations he was induced to attribute their origin, to a 

 watery crystallization, which might have taken place, either at the first settling 

 of the chaos, or at the time of a dissolution of a great part of our globe. He 

 had said the same thing in regard to the giant's causeway, in his account of the 

 formation of new islands. But he afterwards entertained some doubts about that 

 opinion, for these two reasons. 1. In the explanation of the plates of the 

 French Encyclopedic, he found that an observation made by Mr. Desmarest, 

 has induced him to attribute the origin of these stony columns to the matter of 

 volcanos refrigerated from fusion, having found the Auvergne basaltes placed on 

 beds of lavas and scoriae, just close to the opening of an extinguished volcano. 

 2. He discovered the same appearance at Habichswald about Weissenstein near 

 Cassel. The top of the mountain, on which the famous cascades of the Land- 

 grave Charles are built, and which the English troops made the place of their 

 encampment after the battle of Willemstahl, is hardly composed of any thing 

 but enormous pieces of lavas and scoria. Somewhat lower, and near the middle 

 of the mountain, are found the basaltes. Many of these are formed in polye- 

 drous pillars; but some, which are the nearest to the aforesaid lava, only consist 

 of shapeless roundish masses. On the other side of the mountain, and at a 

 small distance from the lavas and scoriae, is found one of the richest coal mines 

 he ever saw, in a bed of the thickness of 1 8 feet. t 



The Duke of Rochefoucalt at Paris, an eminent lover and encourager of 

 natural history, likewise assured him, that at Bolsena in Italy, the basaltes are 

 found near the lavas of an ancient volcano, and that the whole island of Sicily, 

 chiefly on the side of mount Etna, abounds with the same. Hence it may 

 be allowable to attribute with Mr. Desmarest the origin of the basaltes to 

 volcanos. This opinion is further supported by many circumstances; viz. the 

 vitreous, and hitherto problematical substance of these stones; the want of 

 marine bodies, and lastly, the well-known experiment of some melted metals, 

 which, when hardened, appear in crystallizations not unlike those of watery 

 congelations. Mr. R. adds that the other basalt-mountains, which he had 

 seen in Hassia, about Felsberg, Aldenberg, and Gudensberg, exhibits basaltes 

 without any addition ; these mountains standing by themselves, and showing no 

 traces of either lavas or scoriae. 



LV. An Attempt to Explain some of the Principal Phenomena of Electricity, by 

 Means of an Elastic Fluid. By the Hon. Henry Cavendish, F.R.S. p. 584. 

 Since first writing the following paper, Mr. C. found that this way of ac- 



