G I A N T. 



an ekph:iit. TRe tooth in tlic cluirdi of St. Chriilopher, 

 at Hi^P"'-';") 3"'^ ll"-' ll'.<Hii('-fi" V>»>"'-' oi St. Chriiloplu'r, prc- 

 f.-rvcd in a cliurch at Venice, arc of the fame kind. The 

 tooth prcfcrvtd and fhcwn at Antwerp is only the grinder of 

 an clephiint ; and another, belonging to a tkelcton which 

 vns dug up near Tunis in 1630, was fent to the learned 

 Pierefc, who took the impreflion of it in wax, and comparing 

 it with the tooth of an elephant (hewn near the place, found 

 it to be of the fame (hape and fize. Sir Hans Sloane has 

 given an accurate and learned account of feveral other mif- 

 takes on this fub;eil, for which we mull refer to the 

 Philof. Tranf;ia. "N 404. However, Monf. Le Cut, in 

 a memoir read before the Academy of Sciences at 

 lioiien, recites a number of inllances, in which flceletons, or 

 parts of /ktlelons, of an uncommon magnitude, have been 

 found ; thefe have been examined by anatomills, he fays, 

 and have been by them reputed real bones ; and hence he 

 infers the exiftence of giants. 



Giants Cavftivay, a name given in the county of An- 

 trim, on the north ceaft of Ireland, to a vail: quantity of 

 that kind of bafaltes, (fee Basai-TES,) which (lands in co- 

 lumns, and runs out a great way into the fea. 



The ignorance of the vulgar as to the nature of this ilone, 

 lias occaiioned this great pile of it to be luppofed artilicial 

 and the work of giants, once inhabitants there. But who- 

 ever confiders this amazing feries of columns, will be foon 

 convinced no human hands could have formed them, and 

 will iind an accuracy in their figures greater than could have 

 been expefted from the moil curious hand. The length of 

 the feveral cohimns, and their joints fo regularly placed in 

 firics, and the niccnefs of their articulations, by wliich no 

 fnace or vacuity is left between, are wonderful. 



This cav.Teway forms a kind of mole, or quay, projecling 

 from ihebafe of a fteep promontory fome hundred feet into 

 th.e fta ; and the perpendicular columns of which it is formed 

 exhibit an appearance not unlike a folid honey-comb. The 

 fmgle columns are irregul.ir prifins of from four te eight 

 fides ; but the oentagonal and hexagonal are bv far the moll 

 numerous, and, when examined, they are found jufl fiich as 

 mull neceffarily be required in the places where they ftandto 

 fill up between others, fo as to leave no vacuity. Each of 

 thefe columns is leparable into a feries of joints, eaoh of 

 which is fo well fitted to the place, that the joining appears 

 only a crack or crevice in the Hone : yet thefe are regularly 

 articulated, there being always a convexity on one part, and 

 a fockct in the other to receive it, fo that the joints cannot 

 flip oft from one another ; befides which, the angles of one 

 frequently flioot over thofe of the other, fo that they are 

 completely locked together, and can rarely be feparated 

 without a fracture of lome of their parts. The depth of 

 the concavity is generally about three or fWur inches. Thefe 

 hollows are of great ufe to the neighbouring poor, for they 

 make a kind of fait pans of them, and thus very ealily pro- 

 cure themfelves a kind of bay-lalt in fummer. They till 

 thefe little bafons with fea-water at high tides, and the heat 

 of the fun and of the Hone contributing greatly to the 

 evaporation, as well as the (haliownefs of the bafon, the 

 wlicle humidity is found evaporated in the time of four 

 tides, and tliey take out the fait ready for ufe. The length 

 of thofe joints is various ; they are from eight to four and 

 twenty inches long, and for the moll part longer towards 

 the bottom of the column ; they are generally from fifteen 

 to "twenty inches in diameter. 



The triangular and fquare columns are fewer in number 

 than the others, but they (land principally in the inner part 

 of the large feries, and are feldom feen, uiilefs fearclvid after 

 by a ciirious eye. 



The regular figure of the ftorie, compofmg this caufc» 

 way, is not more wonderful than its quantity. The whole 

 country for m«ny miles being full of it, and a vail mafs 

 running far into the fea : for, befides what vulgarly goes by 

 the name of the Giants Caufeway, which is itlelf of vafl ex- 

 tent, there are great numbers of the fame pillars at dillances 

 in other places. 



There are two other fmaller and imperfeft caufeways to 

 the left hand of the great sne, and farther in the fea, a 

 great number of rocks fiiew themfelves at low water, 

 which appear plainly all to confill of the fame fort of 

 columns. In going up the hill from the cauleway there 

 are found, in difterent places, a vail number of the fame 

 columns ; but thefe do not Hand eredl, but are laid flant- 

 ing upwards in diflerent angles and direftions. Beyond 

 this hill, eallward, alfo, at feveral dillances, there iland 

 a great number of the fame pillars, placed ftraight and 

 eretl, and in chillers of different fizes. Thefe are feen 

 fcattered, as it were, over the feveral parts of the hills. 



One parcel of them is much admired, and called by the 

 country people the looms of the organs. It Hands in an 

 elegant form, and faces the bottom of the hill. The co- 

 lumns, of which this duller coniills, are about fifty in num- 

 ber, and they are fo nicely put together, that tlie tailed 

 Hand in the middle, and the ihorter gradually on each fide 

 of it to the end, fo that they look like the pipes of a church 

 organ viewed from the front. The taileH one of all thefe, 

 which Hands exaftly in the centre, is forty feet high, and 

 confirts of forty-four diftinft joints. 



What is emphatically called the Giants Caufeway is, in 

 faft, aimall portion of that vail bafalticarea, of which tliepro- 

 montories of Bengore and Fairhead confill, and vuhich extends 

 over a great part of the neighbouring country. Tliefe twa 

 great promontories, which have been examined by Hamilton 

 and lately by Dr. Richardlon, iland at the dillance of eight 

 miles from each other, a«d are the leading features of the 

 whole coafl of Antrim. The former ^jf them, fituated 

 about feveu miles WeH of Ballycadle, reprefcnts itfelf at 

 a dillance, and in profile, as an extenfive headland, running 

 oiit from the coall a confiderable length into the fea ; but, 

 flricily fpeaking, it is made up of a number of lefiTer capes 

 and bays, the wliole of which forms what the feamen deno- 

 minate the headland of Bengore. Thefe capes are com- 

 pofed of a variety of different ranges of pillars and a great 

 number of Hrata, which , from tlie abriiptnefs of the coaH, 

 are very confpicuous, and form an unrivalled jjile of natural 

 architecture, in which all the neat regularity and elegance 

 of art is united to the wild magnificence of nature. The 

 promontory of Fairhead raifes its lofty fummit more than 

 500 feet above the fea, forming the eaHern termination of 

 BallycaHle bay. It prefents to view a vaft compaft mafs 

 of rude columnar Hones, the forms of which are extremely 

 grofs, many of them being near 150 feet in length, and of 

 a coarfe texture. At the bafe of thefe gigantic columns 

 lies a wild waHe of natural ruins, of an enormous fize, which,, 

 in the courfe of fucceffive ages, have been tiuiibled down 

 from their foundation by Horms, or fome more powerful 

 operations of nature. The maflive bodies have fometimes 

 withllood the Hiock of their fall, and often lie in groups and 

 clumps of pillars, refembhng many of the varieties of arti- 

 ficial ruins, and forming a very novel and Hriking landfcape. 

 Befides thefe two promontories, there are feveral other parts 

 of the county of Antrim which exhibit a fimilar columnar 

 bafaltic Hrudlure. Thus the mountain of Dunmull, be- 

 tween Coleraine and the river Bufii, abotmds in fuch bafalt, 

 particularly at the craigs of Iflamore, where two differen!: 

 ranges of coluiinis may be difcovercd j they may be feen 



7 alfo 



