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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 8, 



year had not yet made 

 fully known to the world 

 the wonders of the cave 

 of Fingal. It is hardly 

 surprising that the re- 

 markable order of the 

 rocks overhead did not 

 attract the particular at- 

 tention of Sir Allan and 

 his party. But it is more 

 curious that the very spot 

 where that order is best 

 displayed, and where the 

 unusual character of the 

 strata did actually attract 

 minute attention, was vi- 

 sited and examined so 

 long ago as 1790 without 

 any discovery being elicit- 

 ed of the organic remains 

 which have since been 

 brought to light. 



In the Philosophical 

 Transactions for the year 

 1790 (p. 73 et seq.) there 

 is a paper entitled " Some 

 account of the Strata and 

 Volcanic appearances in 

 the North of Ireland and 

 "Western Islands of Scot- 

 land," in two letters from 

 Abraham Mills, Esq. to 

 John Lloyd, Esq.,F.R.S. 

 From this paper I have 

 extracted the following 

 account of the headland 

 of Ardtun (p. 78) :— 

 " Hence we steered for 



Ardtun Head when 



we approached the Head, 

 we stopped the rowers 

 and sat some time con- 

 templating the wonderful 

 arrangement of the ba- 

 saltic columns, and as we 

 rowed along shore to the 

 r Direction of eastward, had a fine view 

 \LochnaKaei. f the various situations 

 into which the columns are thrown. The coast being everywhere 

 steep, it was some time before we could get a convenient place to 



