Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1885-02-17
miscellaneous.
Sketches of Foreign Travel.
Br Cor, Jso. T, Gppsos.
6Continued.l

(Conttnued.
Between the cliff and the sea lies
spread out the Giants Causeway,
which is of an uneven surface be-
cause the pillars of which it is COM
posed-surried rs a Grecian phalanx
are not of an equal height. Itwere
we'll to give the number, the dimen-
sions and the shape of these columns
which formed the pavement, the foot
stones of the great Irish Giant, Fin
NIcCoul. In the first place, there are
forty thousand of them. They have
been counted. They are not whole
or continuous as if made of one stone,
but each consists of sections two and
half feet long, placed one upon the
other. The diameter of them is about
twenty inches. The ends of each
section are either concave or convex,
none are smooth or even. When the
section beneath is concave, that inn
mediately above and resting on it is
convex, and sits in. the concayity of
the one below. The upper end of the
scconds section may be convex, then
in that case it fits, precisely, in the
concayity of the one just above, and
so on, in alienation, as the case may
be, without any invariability. Not a
single column is round; and of the
whole forty thousand only one is OBJ
long, one diamond shaped and one
triangular. These rare ones are
pointed out to you. The most of
them have five, six or seven sides.-
Every side is as smooth as if polished
by lapidary. And there is no col
umn unless, per chance, it is one ex-
ceptionally high, that is not surround
ed by as many others as it has sides,
furnishing corresponding sides which,
with those of the column, mathemat-
ically coincide. No matter what may
be the shape of the column,-whcther
a naragon, hexagon, septagon or oc-
tagon-each side is exactly covered
by side of a neighboring column,
and the angles or edges of the sides
of the section above is an exact pro-
longation of the corresponding angles
of the-section beneath. At each angle
of the ends. there is a short curb pro-
jecting upwards, which keeps the sec
tion above in place. In what is called
the Giants Loom, 1. e. curtain or
wall of pillars, say ten feet thick,
forty or fifty feet long and fifty to
seventy feet high, making a prominent
figure in the scene, there is one col
umn of thirty-eight sections. The
sides and angles of the columns fit so
closely and are so adjusted to their
immediate and contiguous neighbor,
that nothing is thin enough to pass
between them. If one should see
forty thousand stumps two feet and
half high, each with either five, six,
seven, eight or nine smooth sides, in
stead of being round like stumps, and
placed one against the other so that
the sides of the one would cover ex-
actly the sides of the other: and,
then, conceive one stump to be put
on top of another, and in some cases
two or more, without regularity,
making the surface of the Causeway
uneven and a little hilly, though easily
walked over, Notwithstanding the
legs be not of gigantic dimensions, he
would have as good a conception of
it as 1 can furnish. The Causcway
is reached from the hotel, short dis
tance to the rear, by fanking the
mountainous cliff. You walk on the
tops of these stones to the waters
edge, and as far as the eye can pen
citrate the water they are seen. They
extend, under the sea, for ninety
miles to Staffa, one of the western
isles of Scotland, reappearing there
i'll Fingal's Cave. There is similar
exhibition of these basaltic columns
in mountain peak near Edendurg,
Scotland, and in the State of Mich
igan, also, near lake Superior, they
may be seen. The same kind of rock
lying horizontally in dikes, looking
like long lines of cord wood, are
found in Michigan. These basaltic
columns are neither limestone, slate,
sandstone granite, nor lava rocks
such as flow from the mouth of vol
cano. They are what are called in
geology, trap rocks or fssure rocks.
Their origin, like that of volcanic
rocks, lies below the crust of the
earth. Volcanic rocks issue through
an orifice of the volcano in molten
condition, and runs off in streams
Trap rocks come up through tissues
in the crust of the earth, and when
they reach the surface they spread
out like sheets. These basaltic rocks
are supposed to have got their pris-
matte form in the act of cooling. In
color they are quite dark 1t IS said
that they are composed chemically
of about one=haIf dinty earth, one
quarter iron, and one-quarter clay
and lime; that they are plutonic in
their origin, that is, formed bya per
feet fusion of the ingredients into one
mass, which in cooling, has cracked
or crystallized into regular forms as
starch will on SIrr,iyISy - Acn0rdi1o