276 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP GLASGOW, 



appear. Later on, at a turn in the road, a wonderful sight comes 

 into view. To use in part the words of Sir Archibald Geikie, and 

 subsequently some ideas from Mr. Jamieson, of Ellon — "Before 

 US lies the long deep glen," bounded by bare hills, rising on one 

 side to over 1,400 feet and on the other to over 2,000 feet above 

 it. Along the declivities on each side run three peculiar bars, 

 perfectly horizontal, "straight and distinct as if drawn with a 

 ruler, yet winding into all the recesses of the steep slopes, and 

 coming out again over the projecting parts without ever deviating 

 from their parallelism." The scene is impressive: there seems 

 something mysterious in these peculiar bars, something too mathe- 

 matically exact to be the work of nature. One does not wonder 

 that a tradition existed among the older inhabitants of this 

 district that these roads were made by Fingal as hunting roads 

 for chasing the deer. In support of this it is stated that in the 

 neighbourhood are the hills of Fingal, of Gaul, of Bran, and of 

 Diarmid. Another tradition is that thev were made for this 

 purpose by the kings of Scotland, when Inverlochy Castle, near 

 Fort- William, was a royal residence. 



The geologist's explanation is quite as wonderful. The roads 

 are narrow shelves or terraces, about 40 to 50 feet wide, sloping 

 gently to the valley at a lower angle than the steep hillside. So 

 level are they, that it was not rill the Ordnance Surveyors had 

 carried a line of spirit-levelling along them that it was discovered 

 that the height varied a little. The heights are — 



From the continuous, horizontal, and parallel character of the 

 shelving roads, it is evident that they have been formed by 

 the action of water, but whether on the shores of the sea or of 

 lakes has been much discussed ; and if of lakes, what was the 

 barrier that dammed back the water ? The theory that has met 

 with the greatest acceptance is that they were formed during the 

 glacial period on the shores of lakes that were dammed back by 

 glaciers. During that period of intense cold, the Ben Nevis 



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