' — NAZARETH TO TIBERIAS. 191 
over a series of successive plains, resembling, chap. 
in their gradation, the order of a staircase, ^. -»- ' 
observes, as he descends to the inferior stratum 
upon which the water rests, that where rocks 
are disclosed, the appearance of crystallization 
has taken place ; and then the prismatic confi- 
guration is vulgarly denominated basaltic. When 
this series of depressed surfaces occurs very 
frequently, and the prismatic form is very 
evident, the Swedes, from the resemblance such 
rocks have to an artificial flight of steps, call 
them Trap ; a word signifying, in their language, 
a staircase. In this state Science remains at 
present, concerning an appearance in Nature 
which exhibits nothing more than the common 
process of crystallization, upon a larger scale than 
has hitherto excited attention'. Nothing is more 
(2) See the observations which occur in ^/>. 420, 421, vol.W. of 
the 8vo. edition of these Travels, It was in consequence of a 
journey upon the Rhine, in the year 1793, that the author first applied 
the theory of crystallization towards explaining the formation of what 
are vulgarly called basaltic pillars ; an appearance common to a variety 
of diflferent mineral substances, imbedded in which are found 
Ammonites, vegetable impressions, fossil wood, crystals oi feldspar, masses 
of chalcedony, zeolite, and sparry carbonate of lime. He has seen the 
prismatic configuration, to which the term basaltic is usually applied, 
in common compact limestone. Wismer, according to Professor 
Jameson, (Syst. of Mn. vol. I. p. 372.) confines basalt to " thefloetz 
Trap formation," and {jt. 369, ibid.) to the concretionary structure ; 
alludinff 
