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1901-1902. ] Fortrose and Rosemarkie. 323 
no doubt be caused by reflected waves from Fort George 
Point on the first outward rush of the tide after high water, 
the whole of the large body of water from the inner firths 
having to pass through the narrow opening. The navigation 
of the channel is guided by a lighthouse on the end of 
Chanonry Point. A well-defined terrace or raised beach, 
about 100 yards from the present coast-line, extends nearly 
the whole way along the eastern side of the peninsula. 
At, and for a short distance east from, Rosemarkie, there is 
a fine sandy beach, very suitable for bathing. Beyond this, 
the beach consists of a very rough rocky floor; and near this 
commences a line of high, precipitous cliffs, extending to 
Tarbet Ness, and broken only by the narrow entrance to the 
Cromarty Firth, with its guardian “sutors.” These cliffs, 
which are of a strong red colour, present a bold and striking 
appearance as viewed from the water or the opposite shore. 
_ They are pierced by a great many caves, singly, and in twos 
and threes, some of them going right through a projecting 
point of rock. The entrances to these caves are all about 
fifteen feet above the present coast-line. In ‘The Testimony 
of the Rocks’ Hugh Miller describes the geological features of 
this rocky coast, and speaks of the clear proofs which these 
caves afford of the whole coast having been raised since they 
were formed. And no doubt the “terrace” on Chanonry 
Point bears witness to the same geological process. Along the 
foot of the cliffs there are many isolated stacks and pinnacles 
of rock, in two series, one belonging to the present and the 
other to the ancient coast-line. Strange in appearance are 
_ these latter, many of them being now at some distance from 
the water’s edge, surrounded by sandy dunes, much weathered, 
and ivy clad, like the “ruins of a world gone by.” These 
_ cliffs, for some miles at least, are composed chiefly of gneiss, 
with bands of quartzite varying in colour from white to blood- 
red; deformed pegmatite, muscovite (white mica), &. Along 
the rocky floor are strewn carried boulders of many varieties, 
- including some of a peculiar grained granite, and a block of 
amphibolite, which, from its appearance, readily attracts 
notice. Ammonites and other fossils are occasionally found 
in fragments of rock washed up on the beach from a bed of 
oolite. At Eathie Burn, seven miles from Rosemarkie, are 
