from Castktun to 3Iar Lodge, 4t. 279 



In the gneiss, observed, cotemporaneous masses of gneiss as 

 represented in the figure at a a a, which might be mistaken for 

 fragments. 



From Custleton to Mar Lodge — Fall of the Dee — Across 

 the Mountains to Aviemore. — The country from Castleton to 

 Mar Lodge abounds in stratified quartz-rock, which is often 

 micaceous, thus passing into mica-slate, always with imbedded 

 grains and crystals of felspar, and passes into gneiss. These 

 strata, as is the case in the Lion's-Head, Glen Calladcr, and 

 Clunie Water, range from NE. to SW. and dip under vari- 

 ous angles, 45° and upwardsj to the SE., and are traversed 

 by veins of granite and of felspar-porphyry. We visited 

 from this the cascade called the Linn, or fall of the Dee 

 where the river flows through a deep and narrow chasm in 

 mica-slate rocks, over which an alpine wooden bridge is thrown 

 at a height of SO feet above the stream. From this point up 

 the course of the Dee to its head, there is a path which leads to 

 the rugged tract that strikes across the Cairngorm group to 

 Rothiemurchus. The same slaty quartz-rock, mica-slate and 

 gneiss, with alternating and intersecting felspar porphyries and 

 granite, prevail here as lower down the river. The path across 

 the mountain is wild in the extreme, and difficult to travel, being 

 encumbered, or rather blocked up, by enormous masses of gra- 

 nite, which have fallen from the neighbouring granite cliffs. On 

 descending from the summit-level towards Rothiemurchus, 

 through remnants of the great central forest of Scotland, we at 

 length leave the granite, which is replaced by gneiss strata, that 

 accompany us onwards to Aviemore. 



Ben-nabuird, or Table-mountain. — On visiting this wild 

 massive granite mountain, we walked in the direction of Mar 



