40 Mr. Ferguson on the 



nou<»ht was to be seen but the wide expanse of ocean in front, unscalo- 

 able rocks on either hand, and behind, rugged precipices, our line of 

 descent a-down their faces scarcely discernible. Westward, like a dim 

 haze, rose into mid-air the Old Ked Sandstone cliffs of Troup Head ; the long 

 roll of the Moray Frith, every now and then, sending a cloud of spray far 

 up their rugged sides, as they stood out, as if it were in bold defiance 

 or proud contempt of its impotent buffetings. The features of solitude 

 are periodically changed during the season of the fishing ; at least for an 

 hour or two every evening, when the boats of Fraserburgh may be seen 

 shooting out in crescent form from east to north-west ; and those of 

 Rosehearty stretching away to join them in an inner segment. It is 

 beautiful to watch them as they gradually grow indistinct and dim in the 

 distance, tUl the scene which was but now instinct with life, and that a 

 life excited by all the perils of the deep, has been again resigned to the 

 wild solitude and undisputed sovereignty of ocean. Such is a rude 

 picture of this rock bound coast. 



On the afternoon of the same day we rode along the coast as far as 

 Aberdour. The same stupendous clifls are witnessed. But the colour 

 of the rock changes from the grays and blacks of the gneisses and mica 

 slates, to the reds and browns of the Old Red. All along the coast deep 

 glens run into the interior, so narrow and so steep in their declivities, 

 that it is necessary to make the roads zigzag down the sides, and so up 

 again. In these dens, as they are called, such as the Den of Aberdour, 

 the Den of Auchmedden, the Den of Dardar, the climate is so mild, 

 that stations for many of the rarer plants of our country arc found 

 in them. I only specify the beautiful Trientalis Europea. Along the 

 coast caves abound. Several of these derive a deep local interest from 

 their having afforded hiding places to Lord Pitsligo after the battle of 

 Culloden. There is also to be seen at Pitjossie, a stupendous natural 

 arch, through which the tide flows at high water, said in grandeur 

 and magnificence to equal, if not surpass, the Duller of Buchan. But 

 the astonishing feature of the latter spot is not the arch, but the pot 

 into which the waters flow. 



Gamrie, with its famous flsh beds, follows Aberdour. On this I do 

 not enter as being rather beyond the limits of my sketch. Beyond Banfi" 

 at Boyndie bay the chalk-flints occur, as we shall see immediately when 

 we trace the course and extent of this curious deposit. 

 We now return to the consideration of these chalk-flints. 

 Running slightly to the south of west there is a ridge of high ground 

 taking its rise nearly at Buchanness, and stretching across the country 

 continuously for eight to ten miles. At its eastern extremity it branches. 

 One of the branches terminates south of Buchanness in the granitic mass 

 already mentioned under the name of Stirling hill. The other ridge runs 

 north of Buchanness, and may be said to terminate in the granitic 

 escarpment of the Blackhills. All along the shore, between these points, 

 wherever the rocks admit of a beach, quantities of water-worn flints 



