82 ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE 



appearance to the surface. The Old Red is probably found in 

 the most perfect form in the Black Isle, which in fact consists 

 mainly of a series of sandstone ridges intervened by extensive 

 valleys covered with rich fertile soil. The ridges are composed 

 of hard red sandstone, intermixed here and there with impure 

 granite conglomerate. The two higher ridges were for many 

 years (by some even yet) regarded as belonging to the ISTew Red 

 Sandstone formation, but important discoveries of fossils which 

 Hugh Miller maxle at Cromarty have assigned for them an ever- 

 lasting place among the ridges of the Old Red. At the eastern 

 termination of these ridges, and to the north-east of the village of 

 Avoch, a large granite ridge has been upheaved from below the 

 sandstone formation, making the configuration of the neighbour- 

 hood extremely irregular. The sandstone formations stretch 

 away into the lower parts of the parishes of Contiu, Fodderty, 

 and Dingwall, and is covered in some parts with a strong reddish 

 clay. In the higher lying parts of these, and, in fact, in all the 

 parishes running back into the hills, the prevailing formation is 

 2jneiss mixed with its subordinate rocks. In the neisshbourhood 

 of Strathpeffer there is a good deal of dark calcareo-bituminous 

 schist, soft and foliated, and mixed with beds of shale and sub- 

 stance resembhng coal, but which has been found to be a "slaggy 

 mineral pitch." The parishes of Alness, Logic, and Kilmuir 

 Easter rest almost entirely on sandstone, with here and there 

 unshapely heights of granite conglomerate, gueiss, and coarse 

 quartz rock. Ironstone also exists in considerable quantities 

 among the gneiss rocks, and a sample dug from the Alness dis- 

 trict was analysed and found to contain 75 per cent, of iron. In 

 Urquhart and Logie Wester the Old Red abounds very largely; 

 and here, as in several other parts of the counties, freestone is 

 quarried extensively for building purposes, both at home and in 

 neighbouring counties. On the higher lands of N"igg a good deal 

 of granite, gneiss, and schistose limestone is mixed with the sand- 

 stone ; and to Rosskeen, Tain, and Edderton similar remarks may 

 be applied. In Fearn and Tarbat the sandstone strata are more 

 complete, and the surface and soil more uniform than in most of 

 the other parishes. Unfortunately very little limestone is found 

 to exist among the rocks on the east coast, though it is very 

 abundant on the west. One small vein only has been found. 

 Starting at the Soutars of Cromarty, it runs through the district 

 in the direction of Tarbat Point, and is visible among the preci- 

 pitous sandstone rocks which bind in the Moray Firth at Geanies. 

 This vein is very small, in some places not more than 10 or 

 12 inches thick, but, nevertheless (to appropriate a remark of 

 the late lamented Mr Kenneth Murray of Geanies), it may be 

 regarded as " the mother of the beautiful white clover that grows 

 so richly in Easter Ross." 



