182 Irish Volcanoes. 



miles to the east — and the cliff near and at Fairhead, are all 

 that can be referred to on the Antrim coast. Similar condi- 

 tions of basalt are repeated in the Scotch island of Staffa, and 

 the travelled reader may recal with pleasure the picturesque 

 banks of the Rhine near Linz, and the cheese-ring grotto at 

 Bertrich in the Eifel, as somewhat of the same nature. 



The columns of the Causeway and the neighbouring cliffs 

 are of two kinds ; some are continuous for several feet, but 

 they are usually made up of short fragments with an imperfect 

 ball and socket connection, the rounded end of one portion 

 fitting into the hollowed end of the piece next below. The con- 

 tinuous columns are generally smaller than the others, and 

 their sides are often, though not always, less perfect. 



The Causeway consists of a group of columns of the larger 

 and more perfect kind, well divided into segments. The 

 upper segments have all been removed close to the sea level, 

 leaving only a kind of floor, almost horizontal. No doubt the 

 columnar portion extends both far out to sea and far back into 

 the cliff. Indeed there is little doubt that the former, now 

 hidden by water, was the Causeway itself before the cliff was 

 worn back to its present position, and the latter, hidden by 

 the cliff, may be so hereafter when the sea shall have eaten 

 away more of the cliff and laid bare fresh columns. It is 

 quite certain that there is no permanence in the existing line 

 of coast. Every winter fragments of the cliff fall, and during 

 the spring these fragments are removed. In this change the 

 whole floor partakes, and though the general appearance is not 

 much, if at all affected, the details are inevitably subject to 

 alteration. Thus no one need fear that the Causeway will 

 disappear either by the frequent robbery of its most beautiful 

 columns, or by a gradual wearing away. It is true that such 

 destruction is inevitable, since the tide dashes over the floor 

 of rock daily, and occasional storms sweep away all obstacles to 

 the progress of the waves ; but the results obtained to-day are 

 but simple repetitions of those of yesterday, for they are due 

 to similar causes which are still in action and will not soon 

 change. The Causeway is, in fact, as fresh and as often 

 renewed as the green grass of the fields. 



A continuous walk over a few hundred yards of the Cause- 

 way reveals some curious facts. Every here and there is seen 

 a beautifully perfect six-sided column, or rather the top of 

 such a column, encircled by a row of six less perfect but 

 tolerably regular columns, while this circlet is again surrounded 

 by others gradually less perfect, as they recede from the centre. 

 At a short distance, however, the outer circle of stones seems 

 inexplicably to melt into the outer circle of another series, so 

 that in walking alone one soon conies upon a second nucleus 



