572 
BASALTES. 
form, as well as in that of a column. Brongniart 
informs us, that there is a chain of mountains which 
separate Bohemia from the electorate of Saxony, 
called the metallic chain, on account of the vast 
quantity of metal which it contains within its 
bowels. Basaltes are found on the most elevated 
points of these mountains, either of a conical or 
flat shape; and these basaltic summits are almost 
always insulated. The highest point of this chain 
is said to be twelve hundred yards above the level of 
the sea. 
Mount Meisner, in Hesse, is crowned with a ba- 
saltic platform of one hundred yards in thickness. 
The body of the mountain is composed of chalk 
and red sandstone ; above the sandstone there is a 
bed of bituminous matter, divided in places into 
little prismatic bars. It is on this bed, and on the 
bituminous argil which covers it, that the basaltic 
platform rests which composes the summit of the 
mountain. 
The banks of the Rhine, between Bonn and 
Andernach, and particularly the environs of Unkel, 
exhibit masses of very fine basaltic prisms, which 
are of a very compact texture, and enclose large 
pieces of chrysolite. Basaltic prisms occur at the 
foot of Vesuvius in Italy, and of Etna in Sicily ; 
with this difference, however, that they are rare 
about the first mountain, and abundant round the 
last, where they form a rock, says Brongniart, sur- 
rounding the volcanic mountain, which appears to 
rise from the middle of their mass. This disposition 
