5/4 
BASALTES. 
water, or at least in the same liquid as porphyry, 
&c. 
Each of these opinions has been supported by 
its respective advocates, who have discussed the sub- 
ject at some length. As this point, however, still 
remains unsettled, we shall not enter into the par- 
ticulars on either side, but conclude our account by 
noticing some of the uses to which basalt has been 
applied. 
In some towns they use the basaltes to pave their 
streets ; but it is observed, that unless they are fre- 
quently watered, the stones are apt to break. In 
Saxony they use this stone to arm the end of their 
stamping machines with which they pulverize the 
quartz. As it melts in a strong fire into a black 
glass, it has sometimes been used to make bottles, 
and the earth which results from the decomposition 
of basaltes is said to be very fertile. 
The antients, and particularly the Egyptians, 
employed basaltes in the formation of their monu- 
ments and their statues, notwithstanding the diffi- 
culty which they must have encountered in shaping 
so hard a stone. Pliny cites, as a remarkable ex- 
ample, the statue of Nilus with sixteen children 
playing about if, denoting as many cubits of the 
rise of the river ; and also mentions the statue of 
Mernnon, in the temple of Serapis at Thebes (which 
uttered a melodious sound every day at sun-rise) as 
being of the same substance. 
