570 
BASALTES. 
state of agitation within it, and breaks with fury 
against the sides and bottom of the cavern. This, 
however, can happen only when the wind is in the 
right direction, as there may be often a heavy sea 
near the mouth, and a comparative calm at the end 
of the cave. Faujas acknowledges, in another place, 
that when M. Troil visited this cavern, the sea, 
ct par an cle ces cas extraordinaires qui n’ arrivent 
pas tous les dix ans” was so calm that it permitted 
him to enter in a boat. This gentleman observed, 
that along the bottom of the cave, just below the 
surface of the water, there is a kind of recess, from 
whence a very agreeable sound proceeds whenever it 
absorbs the wave. 
Thus far we have confined ourselves to the basaltic 
phenomena of the British islands ; but it is time to 
notice some of the most curious that occur in other 
parts of Europe; none of which, however, can com- 
pare in point of magnificence with those we have 
just described. The principal among them are the 
rocks of the Cyclops in the neighbourhood of Etna, 
which exhibit some very fine basaltic pillars. These 
rocks are described and figured by Houel in his 
Voyage Pittoresque, &c. He notices one of the 
rocks in particular, as producing the straightest and 
most regular columns of any ; and says that at first 
sight they resemble the majority of those which are 
met with in France and the British islands, by the 
regular appearance of their prismatic columns ; but 
on a nearer inspection, we find a remarkable differ- 
ence; these being assembled in groups of five or 
