is made at the foot of the cliff from the head of one column to the next above, to the top of the causeway, which, at the distance of half a dozen yards from this, assumes a perpendicular position, and lowering in its general height, widens to from twenty to thirty feet, and for one hundred yards nearly, is always above water. The tops of the columns for this length being nearly of an equal height, they form a grand and singular parade, that may be easily walked on, rather inclining to the water's edge. But from high water-mark, by the continued surges on every return of the tide, the platform lowers considerably, and becomes more and more uneven, so as not to be walked on but with the greatest care. At the distance of a hundred and fifty yards from the cliff, it turns a little to the east for twenty or thirty yards, and then sinks into the sea.

The form of these columns is mostly pentagonal, or five-sided; some few are of three, four, and six sides: what is very extraordinary, and particularly curious, is, that there are not two columns among ten thousand to be found, that either have their sides equal amongst themselves, or whose figures are alike. Nor is the composition of these columns or pillars less deserving the attention of the curious spectator. They are not of one solid stone in an upright position, but composed of several short lengths, curiously joined, not with flat surfaces, but articulated into each other like a ball and socket, the one end at the joint having a cavity, into which the convex end of the opposite is ex

actly fitted. The depth of the concavity is generally about three or four inches. And what is still further remarkable of the joint, the convexity and correspondent concavity are not conformed to the external angular figure of the column, but exactly round, and as large as the diameter of the column will admit, and consequently, as the angles of these columns are in general extremely unequal, the circular edges of the joint seldom coincide with more than two or three sides of the pentagonal, and from the edge of the circular part of the joint to the exterior sides and angles, they are quite plain. It is likewise very remarkable, that the articulations of these joints are frequently inverted; in some the concavity is upwards, in others the reverse. The length, also, of these particular stones, from joint to joint, is various; in general they are from eighteen to twenty-four inches long, and for the most part longer towards the bottom of the column than nearer the top, and the articulation of the joints something deeper. The size of the columns is as different as their length and form; in general they are from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. There is no trace, or uniformity of design, throughout the whole combination, except in the form of the joint and the general pentagonal shape. What is extraordinary and curious is, that notwithstanding the universal dissimilitude of the columns, both as to their figure and diameter, and though perfectly distinct from top to bottom, yet is the whole so closely joined at all points, that there is scarcely room to intro

duce a knife between them, either on the sides or angles.

The whole exhibition of this great plan of nature, so far superior to the little things done by man, is a confused regularity and disuniformity, displaying too much diversity of plan to be all seen or comprehended at once. A considerable way along the coast, the cliffs, rising in some parts from two to three hundred fathoms above the level of the sea, present similar appearances. At the point which bounds the bay on the east, and just above the narrowest part of the greatest causeway, a long collection of pillars, called the needles, are seen, the tops of which, just appearing out of the sloping bank, plainly show them to be in an oblique position, and about half way between the perpendicular and horizontal. These seem to have been removed from a perpendicular to their present oblique position, by the sinking or falling of the cliff.

CLARKE.

REPTILES have the heart disposed in such a man

ner, as that, on each contraction, it sends into the

lungs only a portion of the blood which it has received from the various parts of the body, and the rest of that fluid returns to the several parts, without having passed through the lungs, and undergone the action of respiration.

From this it results, that the oxygen acts less on the blood than in the mammifera. If the quantity of respiration in the latter animals, in which the whole of the blood passes through the lungs, before returning to the parts, be expressed by unity, the quantity of respiration in the reptiles must be expressed by a fraction of unity so much the smaller, as the portion of the blood sent to the lungs on each contraction of the heart, is less.

As respiration communicates to the blood its heat, and to the fibres their nervous irritability, so we find, that reptiles have cold blood, and that their muscular power is less, upon the whole, than that of quadrupeds, and, consequently, than that of birds. Accordingly, they do not often perform any movements, but those of creeping and of swimming; and though many of them leap, and run fast enough, on some occasions, their general habits are lazy, their digestion exceedingly slow, their sensations obtuse, and in cold and temperate climates, they pass almost the entire winter in a state of lethargy. Their brain, proportionally smaller, is not so necessary to the exercise of their animal and vital faculties, as it is in the first two classes of the animal kingdom. Their sensations appear less referable to a common centre. They

continue to live and exhibit voluntary motions after having lost the brain, and even after decapitation, and that for a very considerable time. The connexion with the nervous system is also much less necessary to the contraction of their fibres, and their flesh, after having been separated from the rest of the body, preserves its irritability much longer than in the classes already named. Their heart will beat for several hours after it has been plucked out, and its loss does not hinder the body from moving for a long time. In many of them it has been observed, that the cerebellum is remarkably small, which perfectly accords with their little propensity to motion.

The smallness of the pulmonary vessels permits reptiles to suspend their respiration without arresting the course of the blood; accordingly, they dive more easily, and for a longer time, than mammifera or birds: the cellules of their lungs being less on their parietes, are much wider, and those organs have sometimes the form of simple sacs, which are scarcely cellular.

Reptiles are provided with a trachea and larynx, though the faculty of an audible voice is not accorded to them all.

Not possessing warm blood, they have no occasion for teguments capable of retaining the heat, and they are covered with scales, or simply with a naked skin.

CUVIER.