The HIGHLANDS of SCOTLAND. 7 



that thefe pebbles, together with the bed in which they are 

 lodged, had been forced up from the bottom of the fea, by in- 

 ternal fire ftruggling for a vent, which it afterwards obtained at 

 the fummit. With regard to the nature of the flone of this 

 hill, I fhall here obferve only, that this compound appearance 

 in the rock at Craig-Phadrick, affords no more prefumption of 

 this particular hill being forced up by fire from the bottom of 

 the fea, than it does of all the furrounding hills for many miles 

 having the fame origin. The greatefh part of the hills which 

 bound Loch-Nefs, both on the north and fouth, are compofed 

 of the fame materials, or at leafl: contain large flrata of tlie flone 

 I have mentioned. Yet none of thofe hills that I have feen, or 

 on enquiry have ever heard of, exhibit the fmallefl appearance 

 of the efFedls of fire ; though, being infinitely higher than 

 Craig-Phadrick, and confequently demanding a much greater 

 force to raife them up, had fire been the agent, its effedts on ' 

 them would probably have been much more confpicuous than 

 on a hill incomparably fmaller. 



That the materials which compofe the hill of Craig-Phad- 

 rick, as well as all other hills, of which the flone is of a fimi- 

 lar nature, have originally been under water, I have not the 

 fmallefl doubt. The compound appearance of the rock, which 

 is evidently a mafs of water-worn pebbles, of various fize, na- 

 ture and colour, flicking in a bed of clay, leaves no room to 

 doubt of its origin. But whether thofe hills, which confifl of 

 fuch compound materials, have been forcibly raifed up from 

 the bottom of the water, by fome convulfion of nature, or 

 formed by a gradual alluvia, or depofition of materials under a 

 mafs of water which has now deferted them, (as fand-banks 

 are formed in the fea) is what we have no grounds for deter- 

 mining with certainty, and few to found even a probable con- 

 jedlure : Since, with regard to this particular hill, there never 

 has been a. fedlion made acrofs any part of it, from which the 

 component flrata might be perceived, or the diipofition in 



which 



