288 GENERAL COMPARISON OF 



with those contortions so common in similar cases in 

 micaceous schist. It is nevertheless evident, that as 

 the same prolonged strata do not throughout their 

 whole course maintain the same dip, some flexure or 

 fracture must take place in the intermediate points, which 

 in this peninsula are rendered invisible by the soil of 

 the interior country. It is interesting here to remark 

 that the same character in a greater degree pervades 

 the whole of Cantyre ; since the beds of micaceous 

 schist on its eastern shore have an eastern dip, while 

 those on the opposite side dip to the westward. 



If the irregularities thus enumerated, which bear a 

 very small proportion to the whole extent, be omitted, 

 it will be found that the strata are placed at low 

 angles near the south-eastern boundary of the series ; 

 those angles rarely rising to above twenty degrees, and 

 being in some places considerably less. Under the 

 same general exceptions, the elevations gradually increase 

 in proceeding northwards, till at length the prevailing 

 position is vertical. This elevated position of the strata 

 will be found to predominate in the tract which lies 

 between Loch Swin and the western coast, and admits 

 of easy examination on two sections, that of the various 

 inlets of this coast, and that of the Crinan canal. After 

 a certain space, attended by the usual vacillations, the 

 prevailing dip is found to be reversed, tending to the 

 eastward ; and thus it is found disposed in the Craignish 

 isles, where it first becomes permanently settled to this 

 quarter, and in Shuna, where it has already been de- 

 scribed. On this side also of the general vertical elevation, 

 the angles subside as the strata retire from it, those 

 in Shuna being as low as in Gigha, although in the 

 reverse position. The same general inclination to the 

 eastward has already been shown to prevail in the 

 Slate, and in the Quartz isles. If now the whole series 

 of the Chlorite strata be retraced, it will be perceived, 

 that under minute irregularities, there is a line of vertical 



