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VII. An Account of the Mineralogy of the Faroe Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

Thomas Allan Esq.
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Extract

Sir George Mackenzie having already given a paper, entitled, “An Account of some Geological Facts observed “in the Faroe Islands,” it may be necessary to explain why our communications were not combined in one. This was simply owing to our objects being in some measure dissimilar. He was anxious to compare the facts presented in a country decidedly volcanic, with those in a trap district, where no traces of a volcano were to be discovered; consequently, his observations were confined to particular facts: whereas my object is to describe, without relation to theory, whatever appeared to me interesting in a geological point of view.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , 1815 , pp. 229 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1815

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References

page 230 note* The only publications on the Faroe Islands are those of Debes and Landt. The former appeared in 1670, the latter in 1800.

page 233 note * In the annexed map of the Faroe Islands, reduced from that of Captain Born, I have traced our different routes.

page 235 note * This variety has been referred by Hacy to the species Mesotype. From the great respect I entertain for the opinions of that distinguished mineralogist, it is with reluctance I venture to place it under a different name. It is not, however, without due consideration that I have done so: my reasons I shall detail more fully, when speaking of the Crystallised Mesotype.

page 238 note * The Apophyllite of Utö in Sweden, as well as of Disco in Greenland, after separating in the acid, swell out in a very remarkable manner, occupying a space very much larger than the original; but do not combine into a gelatinous mass.

page 238 note † Catalogue de la Collection Mineralogique du Comte de Bournon, London, 1813.

page 242 note * It was not till after the third attempt that I was satisfied with this experiment. In the two first I met with unlooked for difficulty, by the hitching and entanglement of my cord, upon the projecting points of the rock, and also by the severity of the blast, which, striking on so large a surface, blew upwards with tremendous fury, even when there was otherwise apparently but little wind. I consequently bethought myself of coiling a given quantity of cord, upon a round stone, and forming a compact mass, of sufficient weight to overcome the violence of the wind opposed to it at the summit, which decreased proportionably to the opposition it met with in descending; while the shape, and unfolding of the rope, rendered it less liable to attach itself to the points of the rock. By means of this device, I succeeded to my satisfaction.

page 247 note * The savage custom of tearing the wool from the backs of their sheep, still prevails in these islands.