854 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VIII. 



It would be useless, observes Dr. Macculloch, to attempt a 

 description of the picturesque effect of a scene which the 

 pencil itself is inadequate to portray. Even if this cave 

 were destitute of that order and symmetry, and that rich- 

 ness arising from the multiplicity of its parts, combined 

 with its vast dimensions and simple style, which it possesses, 

 still the prolonged length, the twilight gloom half conceal- 

 ing the playful and varying effects of reflected light, the 

 echo of the measured surge as it rises and falls, the trans- 

 parent green of the water, and the profound and fairy 

 solitude of the whole scene, could not fail strongly to 

 impress a mind gifted with any sense of beauty in art or 

 in nature.* 



The basalt of which the columns are composed, is of a 

 dark greenish-black hue ; a thin layer of siliceous cement 

 occurs between the joints or articulations, which is called 

 mortar by the islanders, and strengthens their persuasion 

 that this wonderful cave is the work of art. Another cave, 

 but of inferior dimensions, lies at a short distance ; and 

 many others of less note are seen in various parts of the 

 cliffs, into which the sea breaks with a noise resembling 

 that of distant heavy ordnance. 



26. Strata altered by contact with Basalt. — In 

 Ireland a magnificent range of basaltic pillars extends along 

 the northern coast of Antrim. It consists of an irregular 

 group of hundreds of thousands of pentagonal, jointed, 

 basaltic columns, varying from one to five feet in thickness, 

 and from twenty to two hundred feet in height. The 

 structure of these masses I have already described ; their 

 prevailing colour is a dark greenish-grey. Along the 

 shore, a vast area is covered by the truncated ends of 

 upright columns, the upper parts of which have been swept 

 away by the action of the waves. The surface, therefore, 



* Macculloch's Western Isles. 



