7 7 2 BAS 
tion of its whole furface, any continuation of the effeft 
which it had firft occafioried. This fee ms to be the great 
difficulty : for how is it poffibie for the water to extend its 
influence to the centre of any very confiderable mafs ; and, 
even fup.pofing it to aft at the centre, how could it be able 
to fix the common centre of all the different columns ? 
Let us next confider what a degree of ebullition mu ft take 
place in the water when it receives fuch a vaft quantity of 
lava heated not only more intenfely than common fire, but 
than red-hot iron! Though that mafs, too fathoms in dia¬ 
meter, were to proceed from the bottom of the fea; or, 
though it were immerfed in it, the degree of ebullition 
would (till be the fame; and it is difficult to conceive what 
fliock can be occafioned by a cold which does not exift, on 
a mafs which burns, or caufes to boil, whatever comes 
near it, 
“ One peculiarity attending the bafaltes is, that it re¬ 
mains fixed in the recefs which it has once occupied. An¬ 
other, not lefs effential, is its power of dividing itfelf in 
the midft of any one of its hardeft parts, and to form two 
diflinft pieces, one of is always concave and the 
other convex; a divifioft ,vnich feems the mod Angular 
curiofity of the whole. A third peculiarity might ftill be 
found in the interior part of thefe columns, if we were 
to meet with any that had differed more by the lapfe of 
time than thofe already deferibed; but it is impoflible for 
all this to be effefted by water. How can water, which 
is every where the fame, and which may be expefted al¬ 
ways to produce the fame effefts, produce fuch a variety 
on bafaltes by mere contaft ? The caufe of all thefe va¬ 
rieties, therefore, feems to be this, that thefe lavas are ori¬ 
ginally compofed of materials extremely different in their 
natures, and from which fuch a variety of effefts natural¬ 
ly proceed. The fame fpecies of matter, when aftuated 
by the fame caufe, will conftantly produce the fame ef¬ 
fefts. This variety of effefts, therefore, is much lefs ow¬ 
ing to the influence of the water than to the variety of 
materials of which thofe lavas ai-e compofed ; and thefe 
are combined in different forms and quantities, according 
to the nature and quantity of the various materials which 
have been reduced by the volcano to a ftate of fufion. 
“ The forms of the bafaltes therefore proceed from two 
caufes. One of them, viz. the cooling, belongs indiffe¬ 
rently to every fpecies, independent of its meeting with 
water. The other is the diverfity of the quantities and 
of the materials of which the lava iscompofed. From 
thefe caufes alone proceed all the beauties and varieties 
which are beheld with admiration in this clafs of bodies. 
Thefe take place, from the mod irregular fraftures in the 
lava, to thofe which difplay the greateft exaftnefs and 
fymmetry. Every new erupted lava differs from thofe 
which preceded it, and from thofe which will follow. In 
the various principles of thefe lavas we muff feek for the 
caufes of thofe cavities difcoverable in the bafaltes, and 
for the caufes which produce thole bafaltes, at the time 
when the matter of which it is compofed contrafted it¬ 
felf, and confolidated all its parts. In the aft of conden- 
fation it appears to have formed various foci, around which 
we may diftinguifh the line which fets bounds to the pow¬ 
er of each of them ; and this is the line which marks the 
fpaces intervening between the different pieces; becaufe 
all of them are poffeffed of the fame attraftive force. The 
fire emitted by the lava, at the time the bafaltes is form¬ 
ed, produces upon it the fame efteft that is produced by 
the evaporation of the aqueous moifture from thofe bo¬ 
dies where water forms a part of the original conftitution ; 
which bodies harden in proportion as they become dry, by 
reafon of the approach of their conflituent parts to one 
another. The abffraftion of fire produces the fame effect 
upon bafaltes, by fuffering its component parts to come in¬ 
to clofer union. 
“ Whatever variety of forms we meet with among the 
bafaltes, and whatever divifions and fubdivifions may be 
©bfervable among thefe varieties, they are owing, i. To 
fehe minutenefs; 2. To the homogeneous nature; or, 3. 
1 
BAS 
To the diverfity among the particles which compofe the 
bafaltes. Among the varieties already enumerated, we 
find reddilh, earthy, loft, and porous, fubftances, together 
with the zeolite cryftals. We fee others extremely hard 
and compact, very finely grained, and containing-likewife 
fchoerl and ze-olite cryltals. Others are very hard and 
denfe, which appear to be a mixture of fmall grey and 
white bodies ; and of each of thefe colours many different 
ffiades, from lighter to darker, containing alfo zeolite cryf¬ 
tals. Laftly, we find fome confifting of a matter limilar 
to clay, mixed with round black fand. It may be object¬ 
ed, that the late eruptions of Etna afford no bafaltes, nor 
have they any divifions limilar to thofe above-mentioned. 
But to this we may reply, that, if they afford neither fuch 
bafaltes, nor fuch regular divifions, the reafon is, that 
neither their quantity, nor the ingredients of which they 
are compofed, are fuch as are neceffary for the production 
of bafaltes: and for a proof of this we may refer to lavas 
of the molt remote antiquity, which have no more refem- 
blance to bafaltes than thofe that are more modern. Laft¬ 
ly, an argument, to which no plaufiblereply can be made* 
that the bafaltes are not formed by fea-water is, that, in 
the year 1669, the lava of mount Etna ran into the fea for 
two leagues and a half, without having the lead appear¬ 
ance of being converted into bafaltes.” 
Upon the whole, an extenfive field of enquiry is here 
offered to the geological philofopher in his attempts to af- 
certain the alterations to which the globe has been fub- 
jefted. The enquiries of the chemift equally co-operate 
in thefe refearches, and tend likewife to fhew what ufe- 
ful purpofes this and other fubftances may be applied to. 
See Chemistry. Bergman found than the component 
parts of various fpecimens of bafaltes were, at a medium, 
52 parts of filex, 15 pure clay, 8 chalk or mild calcareous 
earth, and 25 iron. The differences feem however to be 
confiderable, for Faujais de St. Fond gives thefe propor¬ 
tions: 46 filex, 30 clay, 10 lime, 6 magnefia, and 8 iron. 
BA'S AN, or Bashan, anciently a territory beyond Jor¬ 
dan, mentioned in Scripture. By Jofeph 11 s, Eufebius,. 
and Jerom, it is called Batanaa. On the entering of the 
Ifraeiites into the land of Canaan, the whole of the coun¬ 
try beyond Jordan, from that of the Moabites, or Arabia, 
as far as mount Herman and Lebanon, was divided into 
two kingdoms, viz. that of Sihon king of the Amorites, 
and of Og king of Bafan or Bahian ; the former to the 
fouth, and the latter to the north. The kingdom of Si- 
lion extended from the river Arnon and the country of 
Moab to the river Jabbok; which, running in an oblique 
courfe from the eaft, was at the fame time the boundary 
of the Ammonites, as appears from Numb. xxii. 24, and 
Deut. ii. 37, and iii. 16. The kingdom of Sihon fell to 
the lot of the Reubenites and Gadites, and Bafan to the 
half-tribe of Manaffeh. To this was annexed a part of 
the hilly country of Gilead, and the diftrift of Argob; 
yet fo that Bafan continued to be the principal and great- 
eft part : but, after the Babyloniffi captivity, Bafan was 
fubdivided ; fo that only a part was called Batanaa or Ba¬ 
fan, another Trahonitis , a third Aurunitis or Iturcea, and 
fome part alfo GauLonitis ; but to fettle the limits of each 
of thefe parts is a thing now impoffible. Bafan was a coun¬ 
try famous for its paftures and breed of large cattle. 
BASARU'CO,/'. a fmall bafe coin in the Eaft Indies, 
made of tin. There are two forts of this coin, a good and 
a bad ; the bad is one-fixth in value lower than the good. 
BASC 1 A'NO, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of Na¬ 
ples, and province of Abruzzo Ultra, four miles fouth- 
fouth-eaft of Teramo. 
B ASCULUMB A'l, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the 
province of Natolia, thirty-fix miles eaft of Perga mo. 
BASE, adj. \_bas , Fr. bafo, Ital. baxo , Span, bajfus , low 
Lat. / 3 cwnj, Gr.] Mean; vile; worthlefs : of things.—• 
Pyreicus was only famous for counterfeiting all bafe things, 
as earthen pitchers, a fcullery; whereupon he was fur na¬ 
med Rupographus. Pcac/iam .—Of meanfpirit; difinge- 
nuousj illiberal; ungenerous; low; without dignity of 
fentiment; 
