168 A Geological Trip. [Sess. 
insect in question were as follows: The midge first finds a man, 
and, after expressing his delight, he settles on his victim, but 
he does not bite straight away; with a circumspection far 
beyond his years, he gives a lick first. “Taste and try before 
you buy” is his motto. I was assured that, after this prelim- 
inary test had been applied, if there was no liniment as a 
protection, the next act on the part of the midge was the 
prompt insertion of a set of fangs, rendered doubly sharp by a 
healthy appetite; and the unhappy tourist had to carry the 
marks of the onslaught some few days before they disappeared. 
I gladly took advantage of the remedy, and had much cause 
to be thankful, for in many places one could positively feel 
the clouds of insects pass like cobwebs over the face when 
walking. 
We shall now look at the geology of the district broadly 
(fig. 1). To the west, for the most part, lie the rolling plains 
of the archzan gneiss, the most ancient rock of which we have 
any record. Upon this, as we move eastwards, we find the 
Torridon sandstone, lying in patches, and rising into many 
separate, rather conical, and high mountains, such as Quinag, 
Canisp, Suilven, Coulmore, Coulbeg, and Stack Polly. These 
mountains, from their peculiar position and shape, have a 
remarkable appearance, particularly Suilven and Canisp, which 
can be well seen in the vicinity of Aultnacallagach. There 
they have stood through countless ages, weather-beaten and 
scarred, the hoary sentinels of that rock-bound coast. Still 
going eastwards, we come to a series of rocks whose outcrop is 
sinuous, but the strike runs in a direction from N.N.E. to 8.S.W. 
They consist, first, of a band of quartzites, then the fucoid 
beds; above these the serpulite grits; and then, above all, a 
considerable thickness of limestones. All these beds dip below 
the surface, at a low angle to the east. Just as we come upon 
the line of these rocks we find, on still going eastward, that 
they are very much broken up, scattered, and misplaced— 
indeed to such an extent that we find the archzan gneiss, un- 
doubtedly the oldest rock of all, in many places overlying the 
much younger limestones; and many other curious inversions 
have taken place. This confusion in the rocks has been caused 
by great disturbances and a powerful thrusting movement from 
the east towards the west. It is as if the strata had been first 
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