GIANT'S CAUSEWAY, Ireland (deriv ing its name from a legend that it was the corn mencemeht of a road to be constructed by giants across the channel to Scotland), a nat. ural pier or mole of columnar basalt, project ing from the north coast of Antrim, Ireland, into the North Channel, seven miles northeast of Portrush. It is part of an overlying mass of basalt from 300 to 500 feet in thickness, which covers almost the whole country of Antrim and the eastern part of Londonderry. It is exposed for 300 yards 'and' exhibits an unequal pave ment, formed of the tops of 40,000 vertical closely-fitting polygonal columns, which in shape are chiefly hexagonal. The diameter of the pillars varies from 15 to 20 inches. Each pillar is divided into joints of unequal length, the concave hollow at the end of one division fitting exactly into the convex projection of the other. The rock is compact and 'homogeneous and is somewhat sonorous when struck with a hammer. The Giant's Causeway is itself
formed of three causeways, the Little, Mid dle or Honeycomb and the Grand Causeway. On the Little Causeway may be seen an octa gon, pentagon, hexagon and heptagon all to gether; on the Middle Causeway is the famous Wishing Chair, with two arms and a back, on a platform where the columns rise to a height of about 10 feet. On the Grand Causeway are pointed out the Lady's Fan, an exact arrange ment of five perfect pentagons surrounding a heptagon; the keystone of the Causeway — a -sunk octagon; and the single triangle. At the starting point is the Giant's Loom, an imposing row of columns, 30 feet high, each intersected by about 30 joints; to the left is the Giant's Well, to the right the Giant's Chair. An 'elec tric tramway connects Portrush with the Giant's Causeway.