327 



there is not a basaltick column in the county of Antrim, 

 or any where else, whose surfaces are exposed to view, 

 that would now present a single angle entire. Where- 

 as, in this instance, the faces and angles are as perfect 

 and as susceptible of actual measurement, as those of 

 any crystal to which the Abbe Hauy has ever ap- 

 plied his goniometer, though they have withstood the 

 raging conflicts of the elements through a period of 

 time, not to be ascertained by the records of man, but 

 at least a lapse of ages frightful and appalling to the 

 human mind.* 



With respect to the opinions and remarks of Pallas- 

 sau, although he says it is evident that the Pyrennees, 

 from the ocean to the Mediterranean, have been pro- 

 digiously depressed by disintegration, since the epoch 

 of their formation.! I could not have wished for bet- 

 ter support, or stronger proofs of the stationary condi- 

 tion of mountains, or rocks in general, than are to be 

 found in his writings. 



Had he written expressly with the view of confirm- 

 ing the opinions of Monnetfi who denies the universal 



* Of the basaltick columns near Glasgow, (Scotland.) it is said, 

 " Its constituent moleculse are so intimately united to each other, 

 that time and the severity of the climate, have not injured in the 

 lea*t, either the faces of the prisms, which still preserve their 

 hardness and colour, or the entire of the mass, which remains 

 unaltered, and without any perceptible appearance of decay.* Fau- 

 jas' Travels, Vol. I, page 312. 



t Mineral des Pyrennees, page 121. 



\ Monnet's Mineralogy, page Gi. 



