Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-10-20
LETTER FROM IRELAND.
Correspondence Of the PHGsx.
The Giants Causeway.

POrtrush TO the Giants Causeway Is full of
interest. "Car" may suggest to an Amer
lean reader some sort Of a railway car
riage but here the jaunting.car is simply
a two-wheeed vehicle, above and over
which is deck. A seat on either side, par
alel with the shafts, accommodates two
persons, who ride at right angles TO the
horse. The driver sits in front as with us.
The car thus carries five persons. We are
drawn at the rate of eight miles an hour by
a large white horse, whose color is produce
| ed, our driver assures us, by his peculiar
feed. Ours is the traditional Irish driver,
red in the face, hearty, witty, full of anec-
dote and legend. We did not offer him
any stimulant, but If we had we do not
think he would have declined it.
The road we travel is mostly built along
tho cliffs a hundred feet above the sea,
which we keep constantly in view. The
cliff formation here is limestone of the
chalk variety. 1t yields to the action OF
the sea, aud, in consequence, there are ma
ny points which jut out into the ocean with
corresponding recesses. The ocean also
sezing some soner vein has worked its
way inward, producing vast caverns. No
less than twenty-seven of these are found
in the distance of two miles from Portrush
going eastward. We get view Of the
/ entrances of scme of these caverns, and
one over which we pass is open at The in
uer end. The driver calls our attention to
| the different figures these promontories and
recesses assume. In one case we have
good profile view of the human face, in
another a lion crouching. These with the
ocean rolling at our feet and spreading in
definitely beyond US, make a panorama
not easily forgotten.
Three miles from Portrush we pass Dun
luce Castle, two miles farther little viii
lsge, Bushmells, and three miles beyond
this we come to the Causeway. We are i'm
mediately interviewed by guide who sue
ceeds in impressing us with the conviction
that he is not only wise in all that pertains
TO the mineralogy, geology and legendary
lore Of the Causeway, but also that without
him our visit to this work of nature would
be entirely valueless a conviction which
we do not have when we get through with
him. With his attendance, and he is really
m ore than cicerone, we begin the wind
ing descent which leads from the plateau
to the oceans shore. Our guide calls our
attention first to the "steukens' or stacks,
from their resemblance to two hay or grain
stacks. These were thrown, up of course,
by the giant who in the remote past did
"many mighty works" in this immediate
neighborhood. Past the steukens we are
in the Giants Causeway. The first view
does not meet our expectations, and We
feel like saying, shave we come three thou
sand miles TO see nothing but this!' But
further observation satisfies us that the Gil
ants Causeway is really success" We
first come TO the giants well, spring of
pure water, from which the giant slaked
his thirst. A man stands with cup ready
to dip of the water for us for considera-
ton. He lauds its virtues, but his elo-
quence is not sufficient to draw from us the
pence he wants. A little farther and we
are at the summit of the "Honeycomb
Causeway." Here we are prepared for a
general and minute inspection of one Of the
most remarkable of the works of nature.
We stand twenty feet above the sea, which
surges near us on on three sides. With
our backs TO the ocean we have al our right,
ia the distance, the steukens, upon which
we see the "gianrs wife" sitting in hood
and cloak. Before us, eighty rods away, is
a precipit Gus front, three hundred feet high,
the upper part rocky. This front extends
TO our left for miles. In the remote dis
tance are the "Gianrs Chimney Tops" per-
pendicular columns forty-five feet high.
1t is said that the Spanish armada of Queen
Elizlbeth's day coming in sight of these
pillars mistook them for the pillars of
Dunluce Castle, aud wasted considerable
ammunition upon them. Nearer to us,
half mile away, is the "Gian's Organ"
Columns sixty feet high, perpendicular and
parallel in the rock half way mp the cliff,
have the appearance of the pipes of an or
gan. Here the giant played an accompani-
ment to the music OF the winds, and per-
haps piped while his guests danced in his
halls. Looking downward from the point
where we stand we see basatic columns
which bear right beneath us the general ap-
| pearance of the mosaic of a floor, batting
the variety of colors. These columns are
crystalized trap of a dark gray hue. They
have from three to nine sides, the prevail
ing forms being pentagonal, sexagonal.
septagonal. Their dlameters vary from
six TO twenty inches. Forty thousand
of these columns have been counted. They
rise TO varying heights above the level OF
the sea, but there are no open spaces be-
tween them. II a column has five sides 1t
is surrounded by FIVE other columns, seven
sides seven neighbors, aud these in their
turn similarly surrounded. noticeable
feature of these columns is their vertebral
character. They are all composed of ver-
Zebra some eight 10 ten inches thick, and
invariably they have the ball and socket
arrangement. Smooth joints are absolute
ly unknown among them. Standing at the
foot of what is called the "Gianl's LOOM"
we look up at these columns, which are
more than thirty feet high, with slight
tilt TO the west. The general appearance is
that Of great number Of cheeses piled the
one upon the other, but a close inspection
reveals the invariable ball and socket. 1t
is unknown to what deyth these columns
extend, said our guide. They may run
down thousands of feet. Their general
direction is perpendicular, but from our
station on the "Honeycomb," a hundred
yards before us, up the cliff We see plainly
thousands of these columns which are hor-
izontal.
The formation of which the Giants
Causeway is a part is supposed to extend
under the sea to the opposite coast of Scot
land. Certainly similar capitalization of
basalt tappears in the Fingals cave of Staffa.
Science affirms the plutonic or igneous
formation of these columns unique natur-
al manifestation.