CuchuUin Hills in Skye. S3 



cover where he has and where he has not been,* as well as 

 to fix upon him almost any one precise conclusion to be drawn 

 from what he did see. It is only the deserved fate of one 

 who tries to aim at everything, if he is judged to have done 

 less than he really did. '* Those who may follow me," says 

 Dr M., ** will find a great deal which is not here described, 

 although little that has not been examined."t But we can- 

 not give our author carte blanche for having seen everything 

 which he has not thought fit to describe. Undoubtedly, the 

 most important relations of the Cuchullin hypersthene have 

 escaped him, otherwise, we should not find in his Description 

 only allusions to the indefiniteness of the bounding rocks 

 and the uncertainties of age and superposition. Such in- 

 sensible transitions are indeed found, and such uncertainties 

 and geological difficulties too plainly exist, but Dr MacCul- 

 loch was far too good an observer to have overlooked the 

 importance of much, which, had he seen, he would certainly 

 have described. Judging from his admission of never hav- 

 ing attempted the ascent of the Cuchullins, from the vague- 

 ness and inaccuracy of his map, as well in topography and 

 geology, and equally from what he affirms and what he 

 admits in his descriptions, I must believe this most remark- 

 able spot in, perhaps, all the trappean geology of the High- 

 lands, to have been visited by him entirely from a boat by 

 the sea-shore, including a visit to Loch Coruisk, and a short 



* An extraordinary peculiarity of Dr M.'s method of editing his geo- 

 logical travels is the omission, in most instances, of any sufficient local 

 reference to his geological sections. Sections are often so difficult to "be 

 observed, and require so much skill and fidelity for their restoration, 

 where incompletely seen (if they are to be restored at all), that every ob- 

 server is bound, in justice to himself and to his successors, to indicate as 

 precisely as possible, the locality of such appearances. Dr MacCulloch's 

 sections of the coast of Skye, from their singularity and interest (which 

 has caused them to be extensively copied into elementary works), espe- 

 cially required this precaution. Any geologist who may be fortunate 

 enough to rediscover them, would do a service by supplying the defi- 

 ciency. 



t Description, &c., i., 373. 



