COUNTIES OF ELGIN AND NAIRN. 15 



with limestone. Granite and gneiss are found to prevail most 

 extensively in the hilly districts and higher sections of the Find- 

 horn. The former is also the characteristic stratum of consider- 

 able portions of the parishes of Knockando, Rothes, and Ardclach, 

 while gneiss occupies nearly the whole of Califer Hill. The old 

 red division extends from Buckie in Banffshire, along the plain 

 of Moray, and disappears at the base of Pluscarden hill At 

 Clune, in Xairnshire, an oval patch of the same formation is 

 observed, as well as other two small portions a little further west 

 — one at Cawdor and another on the borders of Inverness-shire. 

 These are supposed, in fact stated by geologists, to be subnascent 

 patches of a subterraneous continuation of the belt of Old Red 

 Sandstone, which would seem to terminate at the hill of Plus- 

 carden. This belt is an average width of from three to four 

 miles. The grey or middle division of sandstone occupies 

 iSTewton, Moor of Alves, Burghead, Hopeman, Lossiemouth, and 

 the lower sections of the Findhorn ; in fact, all the coast side from 

 6 or 8 miles inland, from Lossiemouth to the western extremity 

 of the county of Nairn. The largest of two beds of inferior 

 oolite was discovered in the parish of Duffus, lying in the shape 

 of a lump of fish roe, and surrounded by grey or middle 

 division of sandstone. The only other bed is very much smaller 

 and lies near the village of Lhanbryde. Purbeck beds of wealden 

 have been found at Linksfield, Pitgaveny, Spynie, Waukmill, and 

 Maryhill in Moray. The band of limestone on which Elgin is 

 built is an average width of about two miles, and extends from 

 Boars Head, between Lossiemouth and Garmouth, to near the 

 hills of Dallas. There are several limestone quarries worked 

 pretty successfully on this ridge. Rock is found at Birnie, 

 Relugas, and Craigellachie. Rolled boulders of red porphyritic 

 granite are found strewed numerously over the face of the low 

 countrv. Lead has been discovered at Lossiemouth, and mininfr 

 machinery was brought into operation some two or three years 

 ago. In Nairnshire, dark blue limestone has been disclosed, 

 which burns in fire without losing bulk. On the bank of the 

 Spey, near Orton in Morayshire, is an almost vertical red cliff, 

 which changes its colour before rain from red to dark crimson, 

 and in wet weather, blood-like torrents fall into the river. An 

 immense accumulation of sand, which had gathered during a 

 very few hours at a point called Oulbin, between the burgh of 

 Nairn and the village of Findhorn, converted a considerable 

 extent of excellent rich fertile land into a vast sterile desert, 

 known as the Culbin Sand Hills. The sands of Culbin, says a 

 writer, are literally a desert of many hundred acres in extent ; 

 no plant exce])t the bent grass finds rooting here, from the 

 continued shifting of sand, which by the prevailing west wind 

 is carried to the eastward, but in ordinary states of the weather 



