THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. 21 
girdle. It caps some of the higher summits in Sutherland- 
shire ; it forms an oasis of sandstone among the primary 
districts of Strathspey; it rises on the northern shores of 
Loch Ness in an immense mass of conglomerate, based on 
a small-grained, red granite, to a height of about three thou- 
sand feet over the level; and on the north-western coast of 
Ross-shire it forms three immense insulated hills, of at 
least no lower altitude, that rest unconformably on a base of 
gneiss. 
There appear every where in connection with these patches 
and eminences, and with the surrounding girdle, marks of 
vast denudation. I have often stood fronting the three Ross- 
ficient in quantity for all the purposes of the works. Such an oppor- 
tunity of investigating the geology of the locality can but rarely 
occur; and, in the present instance, the proprietor and managers 
afforded every facility to scientific inquirers for conducting examina- 
tions. To make the bearings of the case clear and simple, the fol- 
lowing is quoted from Mr. Miller’s work on the Old Red Sandstone. 
[The writer here quotes the above passage, and then proceeds.] Mr. 
Miller will be glad to learn, that though the convulsions of nature 
have shattered the ‘frame’ along the shores of Aberdeenshire, yet 
the fragments are not lost, as will be seen from the section above 
described; they are here reposing im situ under the accumulated 
debris of uncounted ages — chiefly the ‘boulder clay,’ and sediment- 
ary deposits of the Dee and Don, during a period when they iningled 
their waters in the basin in which Aberdeen now stands. The pri- 
mary rocks —the settings—our granites, of matchless beauty — 
stand out in bold relief a mile or two westward from the seavoast 
Within this year or two, the ‘Old Red’ has been discovered at De- 
vanha, Union Grove, Huntly Street, Glenburnie, Balgownie, and 
various other localities to the northward. Hence it may reasonably 
be inferred, that our fragment of the ‘frame’ envelops the primary 
rocks under our city, and along the coast for a considerable distance 
bet ween the Dee and the Buchaness.” — Aberdeen Constitutional. 
