( 76 ) 



Notes on the Topography and Geology of the Cuchullin Hills 

 in Skye, and on the traces of Ancient Glaciers which they 

 present. By Professor J. D. Forbes. Communicated by 

 the Author.* 



It is certain that too little attention has as yet been paid 

 to the remarkable details of topography and geology which 

 Scotland presents. 



General as are most of the geological accounts yet pub- 

 lished, they are, perhaps, in advance of the topographical 

 details, relatively, at least, to our knowledge of other coun- 

 tries. 



No doubt, a great deal of information exists on both points 

 which is unpublished, and therefore unavailing for general 

 information ; and it were to be wished that persons possess- 

 ing any unusual facilities for acquiring such knowledge were 

 more in the habit of presenting contributions to the common 

 stock, trifling and isolated though they may be relatively to 

 the extent and importance of the whole inquiry. 



Nothing, I suppose, has so much hindered this kind of par- 

 tial publication as the expectation of being able, at a future 

 time, to digest, amplify, and connect such knowledge, until it 

 may be produced in a shape more creditable to the author, and 

 more important in its results. But so great are the uncer- 

 tainties of life, — so laborious and unenditig the task of com- 

 pleting the physical description of even a small district, — 

 that such contributions from places at all remote or inac- 

 cessible, or what is worse, sealed up, as it were, from any but 

 persevering and reiterated inspection by the envelope of an 

 inhospitable climate (I mean in our own country) — are 

 too often indefinitely postponed. What may be done at 

 any time remains undone ; what is incomplete, but not ne- 

 cessarily so, is left until it may be commodiously completed. 

 But the convenient season retreats into vaguer perspective ; 

 past reminiscences become more uncertain and obscure * 

 every year finds us less fit, instead of more so, for the under- 

 taking, and life is at an end ere our scheme is realized. Our 



* Read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, December 1845. 



