BASALTES. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Colour a dark iron gray. 
Composed of flint, clay, lime, and iron, in different pro- 
portions. 
Melts with a strong heat into a blackish glass. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Basaltes columnaris. B. obscurus compactus duriusculus te- 
nax in fragmenta prism atica granulata 
sponte secedens. Lynn. Syst. Nat, 
Gmel. 3. p. 151. 
Dark basaltes, compact, harsh, and 
tough 5 separating spontaneously into 
granulated prismatic fragments. 
Basaltes figura columnari, Jateribus in- 
ordinaiis. Waller. Syst. Miner. 1. 
p.Sig. no. 9. 
Smectis crystallisatus, crystallis oblongis 
irregularibus. Carth. Miner. 21. 
Basaltes Cronst. Miner. 2. p. 913. note. Kirwan, 
Miner. 1. p. 431. Patrin, Hist, des 
Miner. 5. p. 270. Brongn. Miner. 1. 
p. 455. 
This very singular production is found in several 
parts of Europe, but no where in such abundance 
2 o 
VOL. III. 
