Notices respecting New Books. 551 



the hills heing flat and shapeless, and their sides emhossed with small 

 round protuberances, between which the water stagnates and moss 

 accumulates. Most gneiss districts seem but a repetition of these 

 features on the great scale, the hills being seldom serrated in outline 

 or broken into rocky cliffs ; whilst the valleys or straths are wide and 

 flat, full of small lakes or pools, and disfigured by brown heaths and 

 dark morasses. It has altogether the aspect of a land newly raised 

 from the ocean, in which the rivers have not had time to hollow out 

 channels for themselves or to complete its drainage. In a word, all 

 who are in quest of the picturesque should avoid the pure gneiss 

 districts, as the few spots worthy of notice will be found separated 

 by long, dreary, uninteresting tracts." (Page 134.) 



Another important substance in the formation of the Highlands is 

 quartz rock, and our author's description of the features which it 

 impresses on the scenery is no less felicitous than the preceding. 

 " The regions where it abounds have a very peculiar aspect, the 

 hills being in general conoidal, with a smooth flowing outline and 

 few asperities, though with numerous scattered fragments. The 

 soil that covers them is remarkable for sterility even in this land of 

 barrenness ; whilst their summits and declivities, refusing nourish- 

 ment to the humblest moss, shine with dazzling whiteness. Of this 

 kind is the conical stack Balloch-nan-fey, the last remarkable moun- 

 tain on the west coast, whose naked ridge of bright quartz shines in 

 the sun like snow, and was described by Pennant as marble." 

 (Pp. 135, 136.) 



The above extracts may serve as specimens of Mr. Nicol's talent 

 in describing the general aspect of a country, as resulting from the 

 nature of its mineral constituents. It is greatly to his praise that 

 these large and extended views are introduced in connection with 

 the most minute and accurate descriptions of the rocks themselves. 



The other side of the trough consists principally of transition 

 rocks, viz. clay-slate and graywacke, corresponding to the older Si- 

 lurian of Sir Roderick Murchison. In them fossils are exceedingly 

 rare, but they contain graptolites (p. 28). They are penetrated not 

 only by trap rocks, but also by granite and syenite. 



In the work before us, Mr. Nicol, having briefly described the 

 physical geography of Scotland, proceeds to give an account of the 

 three great districts which have now been indicated. Under each 

 head we have first a general view of the geological constitution of the 

 country, and then a descriptive survey of its several localities. The 

 author thus introduces in their proper places all the most interesting 

 particulars, such as collieries, mines, medicinal waters, the ichthyo- 

 lites of the red sandstone and of the Burdie House limestone ; the 

 graphic granite and serpentine of Portsey, the evidences of changes 

 of level and of the elevation and depression of the country, earth- 

 quakes, parallel roads, the succession or superposition of the differ- 

 ent rocks, the destruction effected by moving sands, the principal 

 arguments in support of the Huttonian or metamorphic theory of the 

 origin of the oldest stratified rocks, and the experiments of Hutton 

 and Maskelyne made at Schiehallien relative to the density of the 



