A Guide to the Mount's Bay and the Land's End: Comprehending the topography, botany, agriculture, fisheries, antiquities, mining, mineralogy and geology of West CornwallParis, John Ayrton
History
A Guide to the Mount's Bay and the Land's End: Comprehending the topography, botany, agriculture, fisheries, antiquities, mining, mineralogy and geology of West Cornwall
Paris, John Ayrton
Cornwall (England : County) -- Guidebooks
We arrive at Saint Michael's Mount.--The rock of which it is composed
is of a conical form; gradually diminishing from a broad, craggy base,
towards its summit, which is beautifully terminated by the tower of a
chapel, so as to form a pyramidal figure. On its eastern base, is a
small fishing town, holding about 250 inhabitants; and a commodious
pier,[24] capable of containing fifty sail of small vessels, and which
proves to the proprietor of the Mount a considerable source of revenue.
The height from low water mark to the top of the chapel tower is
about 250 feet, being 48 feet higher than the monument in London. In
circumference at the base, the Mount measures nearly a mile, and is
said to contain about seven acres of land; such, however, is the effect
of the vast extent of horizon, and the expanded tract of water which
rolls around its base, that its real magnitude is apparently lost.
In a mineralogical point of view, this eminence is certainly the
most interesting in Cornwall, or perhaps in England; who can believe
that this little spot has occasioned greater controversy, and more
_ink_-shed than any mountain in the globe? yet such is the fact; let
us therefore before we ascend walk around its base and examine the
geological structure which has excited so much attention. The scenery
too is here of the most magnificent description; rocks overhang
rocks in ruinous grandeur, and appear so fearfully equipoised, that,
although secure in their immensity, they create in the mind the most
awful apprehension of their instability, whilst the mighty roar of the
ocean beneath, unites in effect with the scenery above.--All around is
sublime.----But the Geology, enough of the picturesque.
The body of the rock is composed of _Slate_ and _Granite_; the whole
northern base consists of the former, but no where does it extend
to any height, the upper part, in every direction, consisting of
_Granite_. On the south side this _Granite_ descends to the water's
edge, and it continues to constitute the whole of the hill, both on the
eastern and western side, for about three-fourths of its whole extent.
Where the granite terminates numerous veins of it appear in the slate,
in many different directions; while the granite in its turn, encloses
patches of slate. In the vicinity of the former rock the latter is
found to contain so much _Mica_, as to resemble _Micaceous Schist_, or
fine grained _Gneiss_, for which it has been erroneously taken by some
of our earlier observers. And, while at some of these junctions there
would seem to be a mere apposition of the two rocks, at others, the
intermixture is so complete as to render it difficult to say to which
of the two certain considerable masses belong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account