An intelligent appreciation of some of the geological interest of the region is to be found in the writings of Whitehurst,[125] who gave a good account of the basalt-cliffs of Antrim, and regarded the basaltic rocks as the results of successive outflows of lava from some centre now submerged beneath the Atlantic. More important are the observations contained in two letters of Abraham Mills.[126] This writer had been struck with the dykes on the north coast of Ireland, and was led to examine also those in some of the nearer Scottish islands. He believed them to be of truly volcanic origin, and spoke of them as veins of lava. A few years later, Faujas St. Fond made his well-known pilgrimage to the Western Isles. Familiar with the volcanic rocks of Central France, he at once recognized the volcanic origin of the basalts of Mull, Staffa and the adjoining islands.[127] His account of the journey, published in Paris in 1797, may be taken as the beginning of the voluminous geological literature which has since gathered round the subject. Three years afterwards (1800) appeared Jameson's _Outline of the Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles_. Fresh from the teaching of Werner at Freiberg, the future distinguished Professor of Natural History in the Edinburgh University naturally saw everything in the peculiar Wernerian light. He gave the first detailed enumeration of some of the eruptive rocks of the Hebrides, but of course ridiculed the idea of their igneous origin. Having heard of a reported "crater of a volcano" near Portree, he ironically expressed a hope that "there may be still sufficient heat to revive the spirits of some forlorn fire-philosopher, as he wanders through this cold, bleak country."[128] [Footnote 125: _Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth_, 2nd edit. 1786.] [Footnote 126: _Philosophical Transactions for 1790._] [Footnote 127: _Voyage en Angleterre, en Écosse et aux Îles Hébrides._ Paris, 1797.] [Footnote 128: It will be shown in a later chapter that there is a remarkably perfect volcanic vent near Portree, but the supposed crater referred to by Jameson was probably some little corry among the sheets of basalt.]