274 Walk/iom Aberdeen 



may wish to remain here some weeks studying the numerous 

 very interesting geognostical phenomena, so abundantly exhi- 

 bited in this magnificent highland district. 



Sir T. D. Lauder, describing this part of the country, says, 

 " The magnitude of the features of Braemar, where the im- 

 mense extent of the pine forests, and the huge bulk of its tim- 

 ber, give quite a Swiss character to the country — the rapidity 

 -and wildness of many of the streams — their craggy channels — 

 the infinite variety displayed in the grouping of their birches, 

 and picturesque firs, often partially interposing their deep green 

 mantles before the white foam of the water-falls — and the acci- 

 dental glimpses of the misty mountain-tops caught between 

 them — combine to form an endless variety of pictures, such as 

 are to be met with among the upper alpine regions ; whilst, 

 about upper Mar Lodge, Invercauld, and Ballater, we have 

 the wide and cultivated valley — the sublime outline of bound- 

 ing mountains, their bold and rocky fronts starting forward in- 

 to individually prominent masses, hung with woods — their deep 

 and shadowing recesses, and their levels and slopes, and varied 

 knolls, where even the very buildings are found calculated to 

 bring back the recollection of many a lovely Swiss valley."" 



Castleton. — To give a detailed account of our numerous ob- 

 servations in this part of Scotland, and to point out how the 

 great mass of granite of the Cairngorm group, Loch-na-gar, 

 &c., is distributed in regard to the neighbouring gneiss and 

 other strata, would require many plates, a good map, and much 

 more space than can be afforded in a periodical work. We must 

 therefore rest satisfied by mentioning a few of the arrangements 

 that occur around the Castleton. The rocks immediately beside 

 the inn in the Clunie, or Cluanadh Water, are the following : 



The uppermost rock is a granite, composed of ash-grey fel- 

 spar and quartz, with a little mica. It forms a bed varying in 

 thickness from a few feet to several yards. It rests upon strata 

 of gneiss, hornblende-rock and slate, and quartz rock; and these 

 latter rest upon, and alternate with, hhiish-gvey granular Jbliat- 

 ed limestone. This limestone is in some places mixed with con- 

 temporaneous portions of hornblende slate, just as the granite 

 is found intermixed with portions of hornblcndc-slate, and the 



