SKY. GEOLOGY. COAL. 36l 



The first example to be mentioned partakes in some 

 measure of both these positions, the stratum, which is little 

 more than an inch in breadth, being interposed between 

 common shale and siliceous schist, and the whole 

 included in trap. It is to be seen between Loch Sliga- 

 chan and Conurdan. 



At Talisker a short and thin bed of coal accompanied 

 by bituminous wood is found entangled in the trap 

 rock, but so high in the cliff as to be scarcely within 

 the reach of examination. On the farm of Scoribreck 

 near Portree it is also found in several places among the 

 trap, but always in an insignificant quantity, and scarcely 

 amenable to investigation : larger masses similar to these 

 occur on the shore at Camiskianevig and in Portree 

 harbour. In these places it lies in irregular nests in 

 the surrounding rock, varying from a quarter of an inch 

 to a foot in thickness. The mass in Portree harbour 

 has been wrought and abandoned, after furnishing, as 



O ' O ' 



it is reported, five or six hundred tons. It is said to 

 have reposed on shale, while above, it was in contact 

 with the trap, and to have extended from one foot to 

 three in thickness ; but it is now invisible, having been 

 overwhelmed by the fall of the superincumbent rocks. It 

 is still however apparent, that it must have been cut off 

 on both sides by the same mass of trap by which it 

 was covered. The fragments still existing about the 

 spot present much carbonized wood and pyrites, and 

 are accompanied by pieces of bituminous shale. 



Similar, but more limited appearances of coal, are 

 found near the head of Loch Grisornish, near Dunvegan, 

 in Strathaird, and in other places ; but they are so insig- 

 nificant in a topographic view and so uninteresting in 

 an economical one, that I shall forbear to point out 

 more of them ; particularly as the map will not afford 

 an opportunity to future travellers of discovering them, 

 and the names of the places where they occur defy all 

 the powers of orthography. 



The appearances of coal among the stratified rocks 



