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will be found to float upon the water: the guides know it
by the name ofgcinders, and will provide specimens for
their employers without the least delay or trouble.
The term Basaltes is derived either from basal, iron, or
the Greek Baa?-zmgu, to examine diligently. It is a hard,
heavy stone, either black or green, consisting of prismatic
crystals, the number of whose sides is uncertain. The
English miners call it cockle, the German schorl ; its
specific gravity to that of water is 3,000 or upwards to
1,000. It frequently contains iron, and consists either of
particles of an indeterminateiigure, or of a spongy, fibrous,
and striated texture. It has a flinty hardness, is inso-
luble by acids, and is fusible by fire. It has a very strong
resemblance to lava, and was for many years considered
identical with it ; but this error is now fully rectified: ale
though it was more difficult to correct from the circum-
stance ofbasaltes having been constantly found in volcanic
districts as well as in other places. It was originally dis-9
‘covered in Ethiopia, and in the river Tmolus ; it is also to
be met in Russia, Poland, and Saxony, both in a columnar
and massive form, but the noblest basaltic areas in the
world, are those of the county of Antrim, and of Stalfa in
the western isles. t . .
Great quantities of basaltes are likewise found in the
‘ yicinity of Mount Etna in Sicily, of Hecla in Iceland,
and of the volcano in the Isle of Bourbon. These three
are the only active volcanoes in whose neighbourhood it is
to be met with ; but it is found adjacent to many which are
' extinct, particularly the silent craters of Italy, although
not about Vesuvius. The area of basaltes, in the county of
Antrim, is probably the most extensive known; it underlays
the whole of the county, and passes through Lough Neagh,
in the direction of its diagonal. In Stafih one end of theisland
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