Visit to the Black-Lead Mine in Glen Farrer. 267 



or six inches square. Gneiss, Avith imbedded precious garnets, 

 and associated with serpentine, continues to Beauly. About 

 two miles from Beauly we visited the falls of Kilmorack. Here 

 the river Beauly forces its way through and over rocks of con- 

 glomerate of the red sandstone formation. The conglomerate, 

 which is of a reddish-brown colour, contains fragments of va- 

 rious sizes, from that of a pea to several feet in diameter, more 

 or less angular or rounded, of quartz, quartz-rock, gneiss and 

 granite. From the falls, upwards to the house of Mr Fraser of 

 Eskdale ?, where the conglomerate appears to terminate, the river 

 is bounded by high perpendicular cliffs of conglomerate, thus 

 presenting a scene resembling that at Baron Clerk Rattray's, near 

 to Blair-Gowrie. At Eskdale the river divides into two branches, 

 both of which are observed cutting through the conglomerate. 

 Immediately above this barrier, the valley of the Beauly widens, 

 and the bounding hills increase in height. The hills are no 

 longer roundish, and green to the summits, like those com- 

 posed of the conglomerate rocks, but are rugged and marked by 

 numerous grey-coloured cliffs, the whole being principally com- 

 posed of gneiss and quartz rocks, traversed by numerous veins 

 of granite. At Struey, about nine or ten miles from Beauly, 

 there is a fine bridge across the river. Nearly opposite to Struey, 

 beautiful veins of red granite are to be seen traversing the gneiss 

 strata, which range from NE. to SE. and dip to the S., and 

 generally at a pretty high angle. The glen to the black-lead 

 mine, appears, as far as we bad an opportunity of examining it, 

 in our rapid journey^ to be principally composed of gneiss, which 

 is often waved in its structure and in its strata, and frequently, 

 when the quartz predominates, passes into mica-slate. It is 

 sometimes grooved, with projections fitting into these grooves, 

 as we have observed to be the case with quartz-rock, sandstone, 

 and even trap-rock. The principal imbedded mineral we no- 

 ticed was precious garnet, a gem of all others the most widely 

 distributed over the earth, it having been traced from the Equa- 

 tor to North Lat. 81^°. Veins of granite are of frequent occur- 

 rence, and also beds of red and grey granite alternating with 

 the gneiss. These beds, in some instances, arc true beds con- 

 temporaneous in formation with the gneiss; in other instances, 

 are portions of veins running parallel with the gneiss strata. 



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