Mr Taylor on some Examples of Torrent Action. 45 



and that glacier muds and moraines really are only feeders 

 to the distributing power of torrents, which readily carry 

 away previously-formed boulder deposits on steeply-sloping 

 ground. Further, M. Le Due shows that snows remaining 

 unmelted on high mountain summits till July or September 

 cause even more destructive torrents than those proceeding 

 from melting glaciers. 



II. I would refer the Scottish student of these Alpine 

 principles of geology in the first place to the course of the 

 Ericht above Blairgowrie, not forgetting a general survey of 

 the scenic aspects of that favourite entrance to the Aberdeen- 

 shire Highlands. 



A survey from the high hill above the town gives perhaps 

 the best panorama of all the varied scenic aspects of central 

 Scotland. To the east, the Sidlaw Hills, flanking the beauti- 

 ful vale of Strathmore ; northward, the great Grampian out- 

 liers ; and, in a semicircular sweep westwards, the curiously- 

 contorted schistose peaks of the Perthshire and Argyleshire 

 Highlands, form their noble setting to the picture. The eye, 

 again reverting eastwards, is struck by the characteristic 

 single mountain summits round the Trossachs, standing up 

 above that great central plain, stretching in almost painful 

 uniformity from Perth to near Dunblane. Fife is diversified 

 by the peculiar trap-weathered features of the Ochils and the 

 Lomonds; with the windings through fertile carses of the 

 noble Tay, and bounded by the rough North Sea. No one 

 agency could have sculptured this landscape. The great sea- 

 wave mentioned by Hector Boece as having destroyed a town 

 near the sands of Barry in the reign of Alexander III. may 

 also have come on this side of the Sidlaws. Then the popular 

 tradition that once the Tay found access to the German 

 Ocean may not be solid historic evidence, still it accords with 

 some geologic hypotheses as to the incursion of other rivers 

 also on the present area of the North Sea. A large chloritic 

 boulder of several tons weight on the hill of Caputh, above 

 Blairgowrie, is perhaps the best loca,l monument of the 

 glaciers. Standing alone in a barren moor, it seems the 

 wreck of a large moraine, destroyed by subsequent torrent 

 agency. If the long central plateaux along which the whilom 



