322 SKY. GEOLOGY. SECONDARY STRATA. 



examples will be described in the course of this ex- 

 amination. Here at length the syenite becomes ex- 

 clusive ; the limestone entirely disappearing, not again 

 to occur but after a long space and in a detached portion 

 which will be examined after the principal district has 

 been described. 



Proceeding now across the country to the south- 

 western shore, the interior presents a scene of confusion 

 that no ingenuity can develope ; in which stratified and 

 unstratified limestone, calcareous conglomerates, quartz, 

 sandstone, and syenite, occur in apparent defiance of all 

 regularity. I shall attempt to describe these rocks in the 

 best order they admit, and finally to trace the causes 

 of the irregularities. 



Commencing at the lowest beds of limestone, or on 

 its south-eastern edge, the same flat strata which occur 

 at Broadford are seen in the interior, rising into high 

 hills and forming a lengthened irregular ridge towards 

 Loch Eishort. So little of the ground is here un- 

 covered that it is often impossible for a long space 

 to procure any sight of the rocks; and it is only by 

 the most trifling indications, that their course can be 

 pursued across the country to the opposite shore. The 

 occasional occurrence of the same shale and sandstone 

 that are found at Broadford, equally mark the co- 

 existence of these strata; while the identity of the 

 whole is placed out of doubt by the gryphites which are 

 found, either imbedded in them, or scattered about 

 among the fragments that lie on the surface. The 

 greatest interruption experienced in this line is produced 

 by the syenitic ridge marked in the map, the whole 

 of which I shall distinguish by the name of Ben na 

 Charn, since other names are wanting, although this 

 title is only applied to its western extremity. 



As it will be found conducive to clearness, to reserve 

 the whole description of the western shore of the limestone 

 for one place, I shall here drop the pursuit of the lowest 



