BASALT′

(bă-sŏlt′). [Eng., Ger.] Syn. Basal′tes (-săl′-tēz), L.; Basalte , Fr. In geology , ., a species of trap-rock, e entially composed of the minerals felspar and augite. It is of a fine compact texture, of a dark-green, grey, or black colour, and usually occurs in regular columns, of which the Giants’ Causeway and the Island of Staff a furnish magnificent examples. It is fusible; and when rapidly cooled forms a dark brittle gla ; but when slowly cooled retains its original beauty and hardne almost unimpaired. Me rs Chance, Brothers, of Birmingham, have availed themselves of this property to apply it to decorative and ornamental purposes. Their proce is to melt the material [110] in a reverberatory furnace, and, when sufficiently fluid, to pour it into red-hot moulds of sand encased in iron boxes. The corresponding adj. is BASALT′IC (-sōlt′-; BASAL′TICUS , -săl′-, L.; BASALT I QUE , Fr.). [110] Rowley-rag is used by the Me rs C.; as beside ordinary basalt, greenstone, whinstone, and other similar minerals, po e the same property.