proof of its strata being lava rests upon the admission of Mr. Whitehurst's position, that these toadstone strata were formed by suc cessive eruptions of a volcano at the centre of the earth, which pouring up repeated torrents of liquid lava, these spread when they approached the surface of the earth at different distances, and formed the toadstone strata. "When Mr. Mills endeavours to establish his opinions by assertions relative to my counI will venture to reply to him.

try,

The precipice from which the whynn dykes issue at Ballycastle, by his own account, consists of alternate strata of freestone and coal, not very like volcanic matters: and as to his positive and general assertion, that our basaltic country confessedly abounds with volcanic matters, I must reply in his own style, positively and generally, that it does not afford a single particle of volcanic matter; that I have examined this tract for a longer time, and probably with more attentiou, than any other person ever did, or I would not presume to hazard the assertion so confidently.

"When your lordship is so good as to perform the promise you made me, of spending some time with me at the Giant's Causeway, you will be able to judge for yourself as to the truth of these contradictory assertions.

"The advocates for igneous operations over the surface of our globe are so prejudiced, that it is sometimes sufficient to refute them merely to quote their own words. As Mr. Mills's paper is now before me, I will give your lordship an instance: He says, (page 98,) In short, from the very rude and irregular appearance of the summit of the hill (Loffit hill), from its rising so suddenly from the limestone strata, and from the whynn dyke that runs through it, I am strongly inclined to believe it of volcanic origin. Now, as limestone and volcanic matters are not very congenial, and as we do not find that a whynn dyke has been met with in the neighbourhood of any volcano, I conceive, with great deference to Mr. Mills, that if he was determined to draw a conclusion from these data, it should have been a contrary one." Dr. Richardson, however, does not rest upon this observation, but follows up the enquiry by a long and conclusive statement of facts, which we regret that we have not room to copy. He then observes as follows:

"Though the basalt septs in mines in general, and every one of our own whynn dykes at Ballycastle, are attended by a depression of the strata on one side; yet those I have described at Bengore Head are accompanied by nothing similar, except the one at the Causeway; and proceeding further eastward, coasting this promontory, we meet with three depressions of our strata, where nothing like a whynn dyke is to be found.

The first is singular and beautiful; it is near a mile east from the Causeway, and a quarter of a mile beyond the last dyke. The precipice here is uncommonly magnificent, its

height more than 350 feet above the water; and the upper part of this, wh ch is accurately perpendicular, and extends half a mile on either side, is 150 feet.

"This whole face is composed of three strata, two of them formed of superb basalt pillars 45 and 55 feet long, with an intermediate stratum, near 60 feet, of another variety of basalt; the lowermost of these strata, when produced westward, dips, and at its intersection with the sea forms the Giant's Causeway.

"This grand façade, together with the whole promontory, is as it were cut down and bisected by a vertical plane, on the west side of which the promontory and all its strata have sunk and subsided about 40 feet, without any other shake or disturbance, all the strata in the subsided part still remaining accurately parallel to the permanent strata, and proceeding westward in their former direction, only from points 40 feet lower.

"An account of the variety, arrangement, and alterations of these strata, so completely displayed in the superb face of this precipice, where nature seems to have intended to ex hibit to the philosopher the order in which she has disposed her materials, without putting him to the troubie of penetrating into the bowels of the earth, would lead me far beyond the limits of a letter. How these strata, with their ascent, culminations, dip, and immersions, have hitherto escaped the observation of naturalists is quite beyond my comprehension.

"The two depressions further east are much inferior to this; I shall only observe that there is not the least appearance of crack or disruption, the strata on both sides of the depression are all consolidated into one mass.

"When searching for whynn dykes upon our northern coast, I was obliged to omit about four miles of it lying between Bengore Head and Carrickarede, as being too distant from Portrush and Ballycastle, where I was used to take boat, and totally void of shelter, even for the smallest craft.

"To the westward of Ballycastle I saw only one dyke. On the east side of Kenbaan Point, a rock emerges from the water, which I have no doubt is part of a dyke, from the appear. ance it made; and as I approached it, I perceived it was formed of horizontal prisms: here too a new feature occurred, common indeed in the dykes further eastward, but which I had not observed in any of those I had yet examined; the centre and sides of this one were constructed differently, the prisms in the centre being larger than those in the sides, and all very neat, the grain too, probably, as in other cases, also differed; but I was precluded from examining any of the circumstances which attended this curious little solitary rock, by the violent surf which then broke upon it.

"Hitherto the precipice cut through by the whynu dykes, and the rocks from among. which they sometimes emerge, were all basalt,

uniformly stratified; but the accumulation of these strata, after regularly dipping, immerges beneath the sea to the westward of Ballycastle, and a new system of materials arises at the end of the strand to the eastward, to wit, alternate strata of freestone and coal; these are cut through exactly in the same manner the basalt strata were, by vertical whynn dykes, which all run into the sea, across the beach at the foot of the precipice.

"These singular walls are not confined to the northern coast of our basalt country; its eastern side abounds with them still more. It was not in my power to examine any of those except such as lie in the bay of Belfast, but my ingenious friend Dr. M'Donald (a zealous mineralogist, whose pursuits in that line have of late been much impeded by great success in his profession,) informs me that they commence near Murlogh, where my tour on that side ended; that they are very numerous about Torr point, Garron point, and in general on all projecting points on that coast; and he conceives (I think judiciously) that points being found where the dykes are most numerous, arises from the protection they give the land in those places, preventing the sea from making the same inroads there it did on the adjacent parts.

"Dr. M'Donald and I examined together the dykes at White-house point, four miles from Belfast; several of them are crowded together, three or four run parallel in an E.S.E. direction at about 150 yards from each other, and are in one place crossed by another at acute angles; several of these dykes, I am told, are traced across the county of Down on the opposite side of Belfast lough.

44

Though these dykes were so near, yet they differed materially from each other; in many the middle part and the sides were not of the same grain, nor constituted on the same principle; in some we found zeolite in thecentre, but not in the sides; in others the middle part was formed by cutting it across (no doubt into prisins), while the sides were a rude mass studded with coarse round stones, about the size of an eighteen-pound ball; these last Dr. M'Donald assured me he had often broken, and found them composed of concentric spheres, like the pellicles of an onion; some of the dykes were of solid massive prisms laid quite across, while one or two had a longitudinal division running through their middle, as in the second dyke at Fairhead.

"In all, the lines marking the construction of the dykes, whether accurate or faint, were across at right angles to their directions, but the perfection of the workmanship was very different; and when we attacked them with a light sledge, we found some to crumble, being in a state of decomposition, others resisted our efforts, while some broke into small quadrangular prisms, like the dykes at Port Spagna and the Giant's Causeway.

"There are two sects of naturalists, how

ever, distinguished by the names of Volcanists and Plutonists, that have of late taken possession of all the basalt in the world, and have divided it between themselves, under the descriptions of erupted and unerupted lava; and they have so convinced Dr. Beddoes of the validity of their claim, that he says, I shall assume the origin of basaltes from subterranean fusion to be thoroughly established.'

"After such a round assumption it may be deemed uncivil to question the igneous orgia of our basalt dykes; but natural history is not to be sacrificed out of respect to confident assertion: I will therefore try by the test of facts whether that description of basaltes (which your lordship wishes for information upon) ever was in fusion.

66

Foreigners seem to know little of whynn dykes except in mines. Mr. St. Fond found at Chamareile in Vivarois what is obviously a whynn dyke, and it embarrassed him more than any fact he ever met with; it will be found entertaining to look into his Vol. ex de Vivarois, and into his Min. des Vol. to see the difficulties into which this courant de lave compacte, this ruisseau de basalte en fusion has thrown him, and the swingeing postulates he is obliged to make, in order to get over them.

"Dr. Hamilton on behalf of the Volcanists, and Dr. Hutton, the great advocate for the Plutonic system, are more ready at their expedients; the first of these forms our whynn dykes by pouring in erupted lava at the upper aperture of mighty chasms; while Dr. Hutton conceives these chasms were filled up by his own unerupted lava, forced up at the lower.

"In discussing the opinions of these gentle men, I will make them the most liberal concessions; for instance, I will concede to both, that they have discovered the process by which nature has forined chasms of immeasurable length, immeasurable depth, and of inconsiderable, though uniform, breadth.

"I will concede to Dr. Hamilton that he has brought to the edge of the chasis his lava, this foreign substance, which issuing from the vast mass of basaltes that forms the northern extremity of Fairhead, has descended over the adjoining strata,' and that he has it ready to fill up each cleft and vacuity.' (Ham. Antrim, let. 5, part 1.)

"I will also admit in favour of Dr. Hutton, that he has his unerupted lava ready at the bottom of these chasms, that he has his ma chinery prepared for forcing it up, and that he has surmounted his great difficulty, and discovered a mode of supporting such a mass when raised; a point upon which, having failed himself, he would discourage others from forming conjectures. (Edinburgh Trans. vol. 1. page 285.)

"Notwithstanding these concessions, it will not be difficult to show that these genes en have not discovered the secret of nature mi las

construction of these singular walls, and that they were not formed by liquid lava filling up aughty chasms.

1st. Many of our contiguous dykes differ materially from each other, yet their proximity is such, that, according to the theory of either Dr. Hamilton or Dr. Hutton, they must have been filled up from the same source, and with the same material.

"dly. Many of these dykes, both in Ireland and Scotland, shew a material difference between their middle parts and their sides, both in grain and internal principle of construction; the change too is not gradual, but per saltum, as if the dissimilar parts were separated from each other by planes parallel to their sides all this is perfectly incompatible with the high state of fluidity in which the lava must have been, to enable it to fill up vast chasms of such diminutive breadth.

3dly. Our whynn dykes come in contact with a great variety of different substances, without producing such effect upon any one of them as might be expected from the contiguity of so glowing a mass; but however this argument may bear against the Volcanists, the Plutonists will say it does not apply to them, for the chemical operations of nature are carried on in Dr. Hutton's subterranean laboratory very differently from what we see on the surface of our globe: in the former Dr. Hutton says calcareous strata are consolidated by the operation of heat and simple fusion,' and again, having proved that these strata had been consolidated by simple fusion,' (page 253.) Dr. Hatten however confesses it is not easy to comprehend this: and to be convinced that this calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in our fires, should have been brought into fusion by subterraneous heat without suffering calcination, must require a chain of reasoning which every one is not able to comprehend. (Page 271.)

But it is not necessary on this occasion to enter into the mysteries of a laboratory, to which we have not access, nor to calculate the force of Dr. Hutton's great agent, compression; for our observations on the contacts of the matter of our whynn dykes with the substances they cucounter, being made on the surface of the earth, in the open air, even admitting those dykes to be formed as Dr. Hutton supposes, his unerupted lava is now become erupter, and of course, to use his own words, those substances which calcine and vitrify in our fires, should suffer similar changes when delivered from a compression which renders them fixed.' (Edinburgh Trans, page 280.)

"All substances, when ignited, are in a high state of dilatation; this is followed, when they cool, by a contraction, une retraite, by which they occupy less space than they did when heated; of course, had our dykes been chasms filled up with glowing lava, when this material cooled and contracted, it could no longer fill up these chasms as before, but must srack and separate from their sides, leaving VOL. XI. PART II.

intervals and disruptions; but nothing like this is observed, the dyke and contiguous matter, whatever it be, are solidly united together, forming but one mass.

"These whynn dykes suggest other curious questions: Were they formed at the same time with the contiguous materials?

"Were they posterior to them, as Dr. Hamilton and Dr. Hutton suppose?

"Or, were they antecedent to the stratified masses, that every where come in contact with them?

"The inutility of such speculations deters me from entering into them. I must however confess, that the facts seem to give stronger negatives to the two first questions, than to the last. But who would hazard so bold an opinion, as that these mighty walls were the first part of our world that was formed? What an idea must it convey to us of this framework or skeleton of our globe!

"A new theory I conceive more likely to be a nuisance than an acquisition to natural history; and that the road to the advancement of the science would be better laid open by destroying some of those we have already."

WHY NOT. ad. A cant word for violent or peremptory procedure (Hudibras).

WIBORGIA, in botany, a genus of the class diadelphia, order decandria. Calyx five. toothed, with the cavities rounded: legume turgid, grooved, winged. Three species, natives of the Cape.

WIBURG, or VIBORG, a government of Russia, formerly Russian Finland, and com prised in Kexholm and Carelia. It was ceded by the Swedes to the Russians, partly by the peace of Nystadt in 1721, and partly by the treaty of Abo in 1743. Beside pastures, the country produces rye, oats, and barley, but not sufficient for the inhabitants. In the governor's court, business is transacted in the Swedish, German, and Russian tongues. Lutheranism is the established religion; but Greek worship has been introduced by the Russians.

WIBURG, a fortified seaport of Russia, capital of a government of the same name, and a bishop's see, with a strong citadel. The houses are almost entirely built of stone. The chief exports are planks, tallow, pitch, and tar. The surrounding country is pleasant; and near it, at Imatra, is the famous cataract of the Woxa, which makes a noise more stunning than that of the Rhine at Laufen. Wiburg stands on the N.E. point of the gulf of Finland, 110 miles N.N.W. of Petersburg. Lon. 29. 10 E. Lat. 60. 56 N.

WIBURG, a city of Denmark, in North Jutland, capital of a diocese of the same name, and the seat of the chief court of justice in the province. In 1726, a fire burnt the cathedral, a church, the townhouse, and the bishop's palace: but they have all been magnificently rebuilt. It is seated on a lake, in a peninsula, 95 miles N. of Sleswick. Lon. 9. 50 E. Lat. 56. 20 N.

H