10 



ART. III. On the Granite of the Upper Districts of Aberdeen* 

 shire. By William Macgillivray, A.M. 



- The granitic inountairis of Braemar, in the upper part of Aber- 

 deenshire, forming a portion of the broad range of the Grampians, 

 and rising to a greater elevation than the mountains of any other 

 part of Great Britain, are peculiarly deserving of the examination 

 ef the geologist. Their huge rounded masses, magnificent preci* 

 pices, simicircular hollows, and long winding valleys, afford objects 

 oi study, which are exceeded in no part of Scotland. The great 

 valley of the Dee, with its pine and birch forests, green meadows, 

 and cultivated patches ; the torrents from the heath-clad hills, 

 marking their course with long streaks of stones and gravel ; the 

 blue lakelets of the mountain corries, destitute of vegetation, scan- 

 tily peopled by the finny tribe, and filled by the water that has 

 oozed from the masses of snow which lie all the year round in th« 

 sliaded recesses of the rocks ; the bare and sterile summits of the 

 great masses of granite, swept by the winds and rains, and crumbled 

 by the storms and frost of ages into vast accumulations of debris, 

 through which the weather-beaten prominences of granite project, 

 fissured and frittered into the form of huge cairns : — These are the 

 principal geological features of this wild and romantic region. 



Of my wanderings in this district I have a few words to say, 

 that my opportunities of observation may be the better estimated. 

 I first visited it in the summer of 1816. In the autumn of 1819, 

 I took it in one of the many zigzag lines of a pedestrian journey 

 from Aberdeen to London, Again, in 1830, I had the pleasure of 

 accompanying Dr. Graham and some of his pupils over several of 

 its mountains, and of examining others in the company of an amiable 

 and accomplished friend. To obtain a competent geological know- 

 ledge of the district would require the observation of several 

 months. What I have to offer is the result of a few days' inspec- 

 tion, frequently diverted by other objects. 



The geographical and political divisions of the district I shall 

 not attempt to describe, although the positions and forms of the 

 mountains are very erroneously represented in all the maps that I 

 have seen. Of the groups of mountains, of which I intend to 

 speak, three, the Ben-Vrotan, Ben-na-muic-dui, and Ben-na- 

 buird groups, are situated to the north of the valley of the Dee, 

 while another, the Loch-na-gar group, is placed on the south side 

 of that valley, between Castletown and Ballater. Let the reader 

 take any tolerable map which comprehends the district, and he will 

 find these mountains marked. 



Ben- Vrotan Group. — About four miles above the Linn, the Dee 

 is joined by a branch coming from the desolate central moor which 

 extends in the direction of Blair Atholl. Ascending the Dee in a 



