We are told, that, on his passing the Hellespont, to enter Europe, an inhabitant of that country cried out: “O Jupiter, why art thou come to destroy Greece, in the shape of a Persian, and under the name of Xerxes, with all mankind following thee; whereas thy own power is sufficient to do this, without their assistance?” After he had entered Europe, the nations on this side the Hellespont that submitted to him, added to his land forces three hundred thousand more, and two hundred and twenty ships to his fleet, on board of which were twenty-four thousand men. So that the whole number of his forces, when he arrived at Thermopylæ, was two millions six hundred and forty-one thousand six hundred and ten men, without including servants, eunuchs, women, sutlers, and other people of that sort, who were computed to equal the number of the forces: so that the whole multitude of persons that followed Xerxes in this expedition, amounted to five millions two hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred and twenty. Among these millions of men, there was not one that could vie with Xerxes, either in comeliness or stature, or that seemed more worthy of that great empire. But this is a poor recommendation, when unaccompanied with other qualifications of more sterling worth. Accordingly, Justin, after he has mentioned the number of his troops, emphatically concludes, “but this vast body wanted a head.” Besides the subordinate generals of each nation, who commanded the troops of their respective countries, the whole army was under the command of six Persian generals: viz. Mardonius, the son of Gobryus: Triatatæchmes, the son of Artabanus; Smerdones, the son of Otanes (the two latter were cousins to Xerxes;) Masistus, the son of Darius by Atossa; Gerges, the son of Ariazus; and Megabyzus, the son of the celebrated Zopyrus. The ten thousand Persians, who were called the Immortal Band, obeyed no other commander but Hydarnes. The fleet was commanded by four Persian admirals: and likewise the cavalry had their particular generals and commanders.
CHAP. LVIII.
BASALTIC AND ROCKY CURIOSITIES.
Giant’s Causeway—Stonehenge.
Giant’s Causeway, in Ireland.—The following account is taken from notes of a mineralogical excursion to the Giant’s Causeway, by the Rev. Dr. Grierson, as published in the Annals of Philosophy.
“I left (says the Doctor) Colerain on the morning of Sept. 17, in company with a gentleman of that place, whose obligingness, intelligence, hospitality, and kindness, afforded me a most agreeable specimen of the Irish character, and proceeded to Giant’s Causeway. The day was charming; and it is not easy for me to express the gratification I felt, as we made our way through a fine and gently varied district, at the idea of having it in my power soon to contemplate in favourable circumstances one of the most stupendous and interesting natural phenomena, that are any where to be seen. From Coleraine to the Causeway is eight miles in a northerly direction, and I could observe no rock on our way, but the trap formation. On crossing the river Bush, at the village called Bushmills, the country begins gradually to rise, and we descry, about two miles before us, a ridge of considerable height, seeming to terminate quite abruptly on the other side. What we perceive is the land side of the precipice of the Giant’s Causeway. It seems to have been a hill of basalt, with nearly perpendicular columnar concretions, cut in two, as it were, by a vertical section, and the half of the hill next the sea carried away. On getting in front of this precipice, which you do by a pass on the west side of it, a most stupendous scene presents itself. The precipice, extending for a mile or two along the shore, is in many places quite perpendicular, and often three hundred and fifty and four hundred feet high, consisting of pure columnar basalt, some of the columns fifty feet in perpendicular height, straight and smooth, as if polished with a chisel. In other parts the columns are smaller, inclined, or bent; and a less length of them strikes the eye. From the bottom of this precipice issues, with a gentle slope of about one foot in thirty towards the sea, an immense and surprising pavement, as it were, consisting of the upper ends of the fragments of vertical columns of basalt, that have been left when the seaward half of the basaltic hill was carried off. The ends of these columns are in general fifteen or twenty inches in diameter, some of them of three sides, some four, five, six, seven, eight, or even nine. Five or six sides seem to prevail most. From the bottom of the precipice to the sea at low water, along this pavement or causeway, which, from the artificial appearance it puts on, has doubtless, in a rude age, given name to the place, is a length of seven hundred and thirty feet. It has been observed to proceed into the ocean as far as can be traced by the eye in a calm and clear day. To any person who has seen both this place and Staffa, the idea naturally enough suggests itself, that they are parts of the same once continuous immense bed of columnar basalt.
“There are properly three pavements proceeding into the sea, distinguished by the names of the Great Causeway, the Middle Causeway, and the West Causeway. These are three large gently sloping ridges of the ends of basaltic columns, with depressions between them, covered with large blocks or masses, that seem to have been from time to time detached, and rolled from the precipice. I had no opportunity of perceiving with what rocks the basalt of the Giant’s Causeway is connected. I am told conchoidal white lime-stone meets it on both the east and west sides. There is in one place, near the east side of the Great Causeway, a green-stone vein, eight or ten feet wide, intersecting the basalt from north-west to south-east.
“There was now pointed out to us by the guides a very rare and curious phenomenon, and which is particularly interesting, as it has been thought, by those who hold the igneous origin of basalt, to be a confirmation of their doctrine. Nearly opposite to the West Causeway, and within about eighty feet of the top of the cliff, is found to exist a quantity of slags and ashes, unquestionably the production of fire. On ascending to this spot, which can be easily done, I found the slags and ashes deposited in a sort of bed about four feet thick, and running horizontally along the face of the basaltic precipice twenty or thirty feet. The ashes are in general observed to lie undermost, and the slags above them. They are covered with a considerable quantity of earth and stones, which all consist of basalt, are of a large size, some of them three or four feet or more in diameter, and the ashes likewise rest on the same sort of materials. What struck me here was, that these ashes and slags are entirely unconnected with any rock or formation which seems to be in situ, or in its original position. They are therefore, in my opinion, distinctly artificial, and nothing more than the remains of some large and powerful fire, which had been kept burning for a long while on the top of this precipice, used either as a signal, or for some other purpose which we cannot now ascertain; and that, owing to the part of the cliff on which the ashes were lying having given way and tumbled down, they have been thus buried beneath the ruins, and there remain.