m 
BASALTES. 
expressions to paint to you the scene, at once sub- 
lime and terrific, which presented itself to us as 
soon as we dared to look at it. The Giant’s Cause- 
way, which but lately had engaged our attention, was 
no more than a child’s plaything, a mere minia- 
ture, compared with the abyss which our eyes now 
contemplated with an almost insatiable curiosity. 
This advanced post permitted us to enjoy the whole 
of that at once which till then we could only catch 
by fragments. Here a person may study, at his ease, 
the magic superposition of these immense colon- 
nades ; admire the regularity of their shafts, from 
thirty to forty feet, of which many are composed ; 
and attempt to fathom the causes which in some 
period of this globe’s existence have contributed to 
produce such wonderful effects.” 
The finest specimen, however, of columnar ba- 
saltes is the island of Staflfa, in the Hebrides, which 
had scarcely been noticed till Sir Joseph Banks 
paid it a visit in a journey to the North of Scotland. 
Mr. Pennant, in his Voyage to the Hebrides, in the 
year 177 2 > mentions it as a new Giant’s Causeway 
rising amidst the waves, but with columns of double 
the height of that in Ireland, “ glossy and re- 
splendent from the beams of the eastern sun.” 
What little this gentleman saw of the island, he 
caught while pursuing his voyage, and observes 
that the greatest height of the columns was at the 
southern point of the isle, of which they seemed 
the support ; and that they decreased in height in 
proportion as the vessel advanced along that face of 
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