280 ORIGIN OF BASALT. 



Facts and ob- mulated upon each other, preserve the most steady paral- 



servations vc- IgJisn^^ 



specting basalt 



in the county When we compare our accumulations of basalt strata 



of.Mrrini; ad- ^Ith accumulations of currents of Java, which have been 



dueed lo show , , , , . 



that it is not heaped upon one another by successive eruptions, we observe 



volcanic. a most important difference. Currents of lava have always a 



layer of vegetable earth between them: this is admitted by 

 all parties. For, while those who wish to impeach the chro- 

 nology of Moses, make a prodigious interval between the 

 eruptions necessary for the formation of this layer of earth, 

 Moses's advocates prove, from facts, that it is often formed in 

 a much shorter time. 



Interposing layers between currents of lava being thus 

 established, we are to look if any thing similar can be ob- 

 served between basalt strata: but no such thing is to be found. 

 Our basalt strata, whether of the same or of different varie- 

 ties, pass into each other persaltum, without interrupting the 

 solidity of the mass, or without exhibiting a particle of extra- 

 neous matter between them *. 



Thirdly. I observed, in a former Memoir, that, on our 

 basaltic coast, nature changes her materials, and the stile of 

 her arrangement, every two or three miles ; a fact which op- 

 poses insurmountable difficulties to the position, that the 

 basalt strata, forming this coast, are of volcanic origin. I 

 will select two or three of these numerous little systems, and 

 state the order in which the strata are arranged in each of 

 them, in a vertical direction, to give the advocates for their 

 volcanic origin an opportunity of exerting their ingenuity, by 

 showing how they manage their volcanos, to make them pro- 

 duce such diversified eflects. 



From 



* I ann aware that the ochreous layers, or strata, lying between 

 our greater basalt strata may be stated, as contradicting this position. 



The nature of these ochres (common to all basaltic countries) has 

 fiven rise to much controversy ; which, were i to enter into now, 1 

 would be led too far from the present question. But as this fossil 

 mak.cs a most conspicuous figure in many -parts of Antrim, I think it 

 well entitled to a place in the statistical suivey of that country ; the ba- 

 saltic part of which I have undertaken to oblige my friend, Mr. 

 Dubourdicu. 



On the present occasion I shall only say, that I accede to the «onclu- 

 jion which Mr. St. Fond adopted, after long doubt, and much puzzling; 

 to wit, " That these ochres rvcte pnie baink, altered by some chemical opera- 

 '< tion of nature, with which we arc unacguainie^," 



