The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1851-02-05
Agrscaleur.ll GeoiOgy--No. la.
ny JOSIAH HoLBRooK


Horubiend is more tough than hard. So
.ite name indicates. II eaters largely into
eocks. Hornblead rocks form some oi the
tnust beautiful and sublime mountain and
landscape scenery ia the world. The Giants
sCauseway, in the northeast part OF Ireland
abe Palisades, on the baGks Of the Hddson
river: the BluiIs, called East and West Rock,
each about tWs mitrs from New Haven,
Connecticut; Mouat HoIyoke and Mount
Tom, on the Connecticut river; the ilches,
landscape scenery on the Columbia and
other rivers in Oregon; aud many Other
views, 10th rich and beautiful, la different
parts Of the world, are hornblend rocks :
The scenery about Edinburgh, Scotland, is
said TO resemble very nearly that about New
Haven, Connecticut, exhibited by the same
sociological surmatiOn--basaliic columns. lil
hosa these cilIes il is the common and almost
only building material, admirably fitted Tor
che gothic slyle Of architecture. Some poet
said Of ths ci,zens ol Edinburgh, who have
very much impaired the natural Seen
cry about the city for the purposes OF archi-
tecture, that liey had so little taste that they
sold the sublime aad beautiful by the cart
load. These eoLzmns are very much IN the
form Of hexahedral pisms, from six inches 'o
a foot or two 10 diameter. The lengih oi
the blocks forming the prisms are frequently
about equal to their diameter. Each black
is cOnc0ve or followed al one enG. and con-
vex or rounded at the other, the eoncaSe nnt
81 the convex surfaces exactly fitting eaci
other. The sides OF the prisms are also a!
exactly fitted as the cells Of honey vcomb
and of The same shape.
The most remarkable exhibition of th'
natural mountain mechanism is in the Giant
Causeway, where these hexahedral columns
so perfsciy matched. cover great surface
and rise 10 he height Of two or three hundred
feet. The inhabitants Of The county, a
same ancien, period, supposed it TO be th'
work Of race Of giants living there at
peflod skill more ancient.
The property of ioughness in hornblent
Veiy much modifes the character OF Iht
socks of which it forms part. For man.
purposes they are the most durable OF al
rocky formations. The Russ pavements, 10
,foduced inio New York, nre formed of rocI
from Staten Island ulmos, entirely horn
blend, nav ng ht,le quartz III h'ie gram
in,erspersed through The mass. Thougl
called Staten Island granite, it IS very differ
eai, aud entirely superior to any granite ior
nation correctly SO called. No rock upor
the globe could probably De found more dl
rable or better fitted for such pavement
Ahan this hornblend rock taken from Siatei
Island.
ExpERIMENr..-Dra circle by pair q
diyiders. Not changing the distance Of II
legs, place one point in the circumference q
the circle drawn, dividing il into equal parts
/, will thus form in the circumference 81
polnia equally distant from each other. U
ssi.e these points BY lines drawn by the divi
slers, and the result will be regular hexa
Ran, showing the shape Of basaltic columns
quartz crystals, beryI, emerald, apaiite, cell
of The honeycomb, and mnny other spec
mems Of "NATURAL MEcHANIsM"