AHRAN. -ALLUVIA. 341 



ing mountains; characters sufficiently distinct from that 

 of almost all the granites of Scotland. These blocks are 

 not only largest, but most numerous, in the immediate 

 vicinity of the mountains, and become smaller and less 

 frequent towards the remoter parts of the island ; I may 

 here add, that they are also found on the shores of Lam- 

 lash. One block of an enormous size, among many 

 others of considerable dimensions, is to be seen near 

 Corry ; and in this neighbourhood they are indeed abund- 

 ant, while at the same time their origin in the mountains 

 above is sufficiently obvious : as we recede from these 

 it becomes more difficult to trace their progress. Some 

 also, of great bulk, lie on the shore under Corygills, 

 in such situations that a spectator examining the surface 

 of the now intermediate land, would be unable to assign 

 a*ny possible road for their descent from their original 

 to their present position. This difficulty increases still 

 more when we view them in a situation so perfectly 

 insulated as Lamlash island ; or on the southern sum- 

 mits of the lower hills, now separated from the mountains 

 by an intricate series of deep valleys. This phenomenon 

 has already often excited the attention and called forth 

 the ingenuity of philosophers ; but no situation has per- 

 haps been pointed out where the origin of the travelled 

 blocks is more obvious, or their new position more 

 difficult to comprehend, without assuming considerable 

 revolutions of the surface of the land over which they 

 have passed. But I can add nothing to that which is, 

 on this subject, already familiar to geologists. It is 

 sufficient to have pointed out one example, in which 

 the compact and solitary position of the fixed mass of 

 granite, the identity of the materials of this mass with 

 that of the travelled stones, the gradual diminution of 

 these as they recede from their parent, and the insulated 

 position of the whole, render their origin indubitable, and 

 present to the geologist a spot, on the changes of which 



