DU XOYER XOTES ON THE GIANT's CAUSEWAY. 3 



oiisly tlie pale " queen of niglit" must liave slied her rays along tliat 

 glistening tract, and liow fair and wHte tlie long cnrling shore-waves 

 must have looked, as they canght with their roUing crests her silveiy 

 beams, and perchance reddened in the glare of some raging volcano. 

 Over the endless ocean the glittering flood of light ranged away, until 

 far, far off in the gTey and misty horizon, it mounted to the clouds, 

 and seemed to mingle earth ^vith heaven. How beautiful must have 

 been the moon's light then, when only the trilobites turned their 

 hundred-lensed eyes towards her, and skipping H^-menocaiides in 

 their sportive progress, spattered out of the shadowy pools sparks 

 and flashes of bright light. What a world of silence, unbroken save 

 by the rushing of the wind, or the murmurs of the sea. "No beast 

 upon that oosy land, where nor grass nor herbage grew. ^N'o birds 

 nor insects in that dewy air ; nor wa^ es nor ripples landed the ght- 

 tering fish upon those sHmy shores ; the wide expanse of waters was 

 untenanted by the scaly tribe, and the sluggish shell-fish, worms, and 

 three-lobed crabs, and their slu™p-like congeners, were the sole 

 tenants of the earth. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES OK THE STRATIGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE 

 GIANT'S CAUSEWAY, AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE 

 BASALTIC CLIFFS IMMEDIATELY ADJOIN'ING IT. 



By Geo. Y. Du Noyer, M.R.I.A., Senior Geologist of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of Irelajnd. 



During a visit to the Giant's Causeway in the month of September, 

 1857, I made a few notes and sketches on the spot, having reference 

 more particularly to the determinating of the stratigraphical position 

 of the Causeway itself, and to get if possible a clear idea of the struc- 

 ture of the exposed cliff-sections of the basalts in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. On comparing my observations with an account of 

 the causeway and the adjoining coast given by the Rev. John 

 Dubom^lien in his statistical suiwey of the county of Antrim in 1812, 

 I was struck with the discrepancies which exist between them, the 



