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L E T T E R XXI I .
To ProfeiTor B e r g m a n .
O f the Pillars o f Bafalt.
Stockholm, June 6, 1773.
M O N G the effects o f fire, fome
o f which are extremely dreadful,
and all of them very extraordinary
and remarkable, none have in
latter times attrafled more attention
than thofe large regular pillars known
by the name o f Bafalts. Formerly
there had been hardly any places obferved
in Europe where this kind of
ilone was found, the Giant’s Canfe-
way excepted ; and the moil part of
our mineralogiils have, i f I am not
miilaken, confidered them as a kind
o f cryilallization. Mr. Defmarets was
the firil who maintained, in a differta-
tioD he prefented to the French academy
o f fciences, that they were produced
by fire ; and in it he defcribed
fome bafalts found near St. Sandonr in
Auvergne.
This
This opinion at firft appeared almoil
abiiird to our natural hiftorians,
as it was not believed that volcanos
had ever been in thefe places where
bafalt pillars were found.
This new difcovery however occa-
ftoned a more exact enquiry concerning
other places where thefe pillars are
met with. All thefe enquiries only
ferved to confirm Mr* Defmarets’s
opinion, by proving that thefe bafalt
pillars muil have been produced by
fubterraneous fires.
There is no one furely will entertain
the leail doubt o f a fubterraneous
fire having formerly exifted where
thefe pillars now ftand, as at Stolpen-
ftein in Mifnia ; near Lauban in Lii-
fatia ; in Bohemia ; near Leignitz in
Silefia; near Brandau in Heffe ; in
Sicily ; nearBolfenna, Montebello, and
St. Forio in I taly; near St. Lucas in the
diftrifl o f St. Vicenza; near Monte
RoiTo in the Paduan diilrifl, and
Monte Diavolo in the mountains of
Verona ; in Low'er Languedoc ; in
Iceland, and in the weftern iilands o f
Scotland; all which you, Sir, have
men-
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