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VON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND. 609
in England, almoft every where in the Velay and Auvergne, where whole towns,as Chillac
and St. Flour, are built upon thefe pillars. But as this matter has not yet been fully
inveftigated, and it cannot be determined with cer tainty in what manner thefe pillars
are formed, though they are known to be produced by fire, perhaps it will not be dif-
agreeable to you, if I fay fomething of the many bafalt pillars in Iceland, as well as of
thofe in the ifle of Staffa, which you will readily acknowledge to be more fingular than
any thing nature ever produced of this kind.
It is well known that thefe pillars are very common in delat and fome account is
alfo given of them in the Phyfical Defcription publifhed of the country. ‘The lower fort
of people imagine thefe pillars have been piled upon one another by the giants, who
made ufe of fupernatural force to effect it, whence they have obtained the name of the
Trolla-hlaud Trollkonu-gardur in feveral places. They have generally from three to feven
fides, and are from ae to fix feet in thicknefs, and from twelve to fixteen yards in,
length, without any horizontal divifions. But fometimes they are ous from fix ir at 2S
to one foot in height, and they are then very regular, as thofe at Videy, which are made
ule of for windows and door-pofts. In fome places they only peep out of the mountains
here and there among the lava, or ftill oftener among tuffa; in other places they are
quite overthrown, and only pieces of broken pillars appear. Sometimes again they ex-
tend two or three miles in length without interruption. In the mountain called Glock-
enberg in Snefiald{nas, this kind of {tone appears in a manner very different from any
other place in Iceland; for on the top the pillars lie quite horizontally, in the middle
they are floping, and the loweft are perfectly perpendicular; in fome places they are
bent as a femi-circle, which proves a very violent effect of the fire on the pillars already
ftanding, as in moft places, or at leaft in a great many, they are entirely perpendiculay,
and by ‘their form and fituation, that they have even been burnt in a perpendicular di-
rection.
As to the matter of which the Icelandic bafalts are compofed, it is in fome places
fimilar to that of which the pillars at Staffa confift, though in others it is more porous,
and inclines more to grey. And who knows, if an attentive and curious naturalift, whe
had both time and talents requifite for fuch an undertaking, might not eafily trace all
the gradations between the coarfeft lava and the fineft pillar of bafalt ? 1 myfelf faw fome
of this laft fort at Videy, which were folid, of a blackifh grey, and compofed of feveral
joints. And not far from thence, at Laugarnis, near the fea-fhore, I faw a porous
glafly kind of ftone, confequently lava, but was fo indiftinétly divided, that I was a long
time undetermined, whether I fhould confider it as pillars or not; but at length the
re{t of the company, as well as myfelf, were perfuaded that they really were fuch. But
I will poftpone the examination of the matter of which thefe pillars confilt, and of the
manner in which they are formed, till fuch time as I have given you the promifed de-
{eription of the ifle of Staffa.
A piece of good fortune procured us the pleafure of being the firft who ever examined
thefe wonders of nature with an attentive eye. Among all thofe who have publifhed
defcriptions of Scotland, there are none except Buchanan, whofe account, however, is
very imperfect, that mentions a fingle fyllable of thefe pillars. Mr. Pennant, an inde-
fatigable and experienced naturalift, in the fame year that we vifited this ifland, made a
tour to Scotland to examine the natural productions of that country, but was prevented
by a contrary wind from going to Staffa. Molt probably we incall not have come
there neither, if the ufual ebb and flood, which is very {trong between the weftern iflands
of Scotland, had not forced us in our way to Iceland, on the twelfth of Auguft in the
night, to caft anchor in the found, between the ifle of Mull and Morvern on the conti-
4U0 2 nent,
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