64 MR DAVID RUSSELL ON 
LOCH MAREE AND WEST ROSS. 
By Mr Davin RUuSSELL. 
(Read 1st December 1898.) 
THE district to which this paper specially refers is the 
mountain tract lying between the great central watershed of 
Ross-shire on the east, and the sea on the west, extending to 
the south as far as Kyle Ferry, and, in a northern direction, 
to the River Kirhaig, which is three or four miles to the 
south of Lochinver. 
Generally speaking, this mountain tract may be regarded as 
the modified descendant of what was, in past geological times, 
a great plateau, which rose to 3000 or even 4000 feet above 
sea-level. Originally this plateau extended far to the north, 
the south, and the east, and there is every reason for believing 
that at one time it extended also beyond its present limits 
to the west. 
This great upland tract has been carved by various de- 
nuding forces into deep valleys and lochs, so that the plain- 
like character of the upland is not realised until it is viewed 
from one of the higher mountain summits, such as the top 
of Slioch. From such a stand-point there appears an almost 
endless succession of peaks extending to the north, the east, 
and to the south, as far as the eye can reach; each eminence 
rising to nearly the same level. 3200 feet below the 
summit level is Loch Maree, adorned with dark, pine-clad 
islands and marginal patches of a brighter green. 
To the west, the form of the surface is unlike the sur- 
rounding country. On that side we are on the edge of 
the mountain plateau, and a series of smooth, dull green, 
undulating, and rounded ice-worn knolls slope from the 
summit level down to the sea. Small lochs and pools are so 
numerous that the general aspect of the land is as if the 
country had been flooded, and the arms of the sea running 
far inland contribute further to the impression of sub- 
mergence. 
