150 Account of Harris. 



east coast. It is about thirty feet thick, and in general rises seve- 

 ral feet above the surface, presenting the appearance of an cnox- 

 mous wall, and in some places of the ruins of castles. Unlike 

 most of the 'others, it is very large grained. Of the granite 

 veins, the largest is that which runs across the face of Ben- 

 Capval, over an extent of a mile and a-hal£ There are others 

 of the same kind in Ronaval, in Taransay, and in many other 

 places. The ingredients are ctf large size, and consist of red or 

 white felspar, quartz of various colours, sometimes granular, 

 and mica in large plates *. The simple minerals which I have 

 observed in the country are the following. 



Quartz of various colours, grey, white, brown, milky, and pale -rose. Fel- 

 spar, generally flesh-coloured in the granite veins, and whitish in the 

 gneiss. Moonstone, in granite veins opposite the rock of Stromay. 

 Mica, grey, brown, dark-green, black, in plates of upwards of nine in- 

 ches, also scaly. Garnet, of numberless varieties, and of all sizes from 

 four inches downwards. Cinnamonstone. Hornblende, in the gneiss, 

 also as hornblende rock, and crystallised. Hypersthene, at Marig. 

 Common and asbestous Actynolite. Flexible and rigid asbestus in im- 

 mense quantities -j-. Talc, common green. Indurated Talc. Potstone. 

 Limestone. Sahlite and Coccolite in the limestone at Rodill. Beryl^ 

 white, opaque, in the granite vein of Ben-Capval. Zeolite, in the trap 

 veins. Calcedony, in small specks in the trap. veins. Clay, of a light 

 green colour, chiefly on the declivities, seldom of great depth, and com- 

 monly mixed with fragments of gneiss. Porcelain earth, forming a de- 

 posit under peat, as well as the bottom of a lake, between Ilodill and 

 Finsbay, and which the inhabitants of the village of Ilodill, now depo- 

 pulated, formerly used for white-washing their huts. Bog-iron-ore, 

 dark -brown, compact, with vesicular cavities, in considerable abundance, 

 in many parts of the Forest, and southern division. Titanitic iron-ore, in 

 granite veins. Iron-pyrites. Zircon, discovered by Mr Nicol ; see for- 

 mer Number of this Journal. 



Peat and sand form the principal ingredients of the soil of 

 Harris. The upper parts of most of the mountains are covered 



• It is remarkable of these veins, that the trap ones generally present 

 distinct lateral surfaces, while the granitic, in all cases that I have examined, 

 pass by a rapid transition into the bounding gneiss rock. 



-)• Dr MacCuUoch mentions the occurrence of asbestos at Nishishee (Inis- 

 rith, pronounced Inishshee), which he conjectures to have been derived from 

 a bed of serpentine. At Inishshee I found neither asbestos nor serpentine ; 

 but of the former I have seen enough in the country to load an Indiaman. It 

 occurs in a large perfectly isolated mass in granite in the hills of Little Borg, 



