26 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



Between Stonehaven and Aberdeen the sea- 

 coast exhibits many interesting geological pheno- 

 mena ; the lofty cliffs, however, which bound the 

 coast, are in many instances so inaccessible as to 

 render an examination of them impracticable. To 

 the north of Aberdeen the coast, for several miles, 

 is formed of a thick mass of drifting sands, forming 

 a group of low irregular hillocks, but beyond this 

 to Peterhead and Fraserburgh gneiss and granite 

 almost exclusively prevail. The coast-line now 

 trends westwards toward the Moray Firth, and 

 exhibits great variety in its geological structure, 

 and forms a most interesting field of scientific 

 inquiry. The geological peculiarities of this por- 

 tion of the coast would require, if fully described, 

 a very lengthened and elaborate treatise. The 

 shores of the Firths of Moray and Cromarty and 

 the southern shores of Dornoch Firth are composed 

 of the old red sandstone, which, with the excep- 

 tion of the space between Dornoch and Berridale, 

 where rocks of granite, gneiss, oolite, and other 

 formations occur, extends around the whole shores 

 of Caithness. Along the northern coast of Scotland 

 gneiss is the prevailing formation, interrupted to- 

 ward the west by rocks of quartz and limestone, 

 and the Devonian formation, and at length is ter- 

 minated by Cape Wrath, a promontory of gneiss 

 and hornblende intersected by granite. Here the 

 surges of the Atlantic are opposed by stupendous 

 cliffs, many of them six hundred feet in height, 

 which, by the action of the waves during a long 

 course of ages, have in many instances been hoi- 



