ARRAN. GEOLOGY. SECONDARY STRATA. 371 



this point, it will be found that all the beds which 

 follow, are distinctly superimposed in succession on this 

 rock; their broken edges appearing in a regular series 

 of steps to the junction near Loch Ransa, where they 

 finally disappear, the dips, as before remarked, being 

 northerly.* 1 At the same time, the angle of this incli- 

 nation varies with a general regularity along the whole 

 line ; the inclinations on the shore reaching from ten to 

 twenty degrees, and those on the faces of the hill from 

 fifty to seventy, but being always towards the same quarter. 

 There are nevertheless accidental irregularities, which 

 sometimes occur in the vicinity of trap veins, or arise 

 from other circumstances not apparent ; but they do not 

 affect the general conclusion. 



The strata that follow next to the conglomerate and 

 red sandstone, consist of a great series of beds of 

 white sandstone, which are to be seen near the farm of 

 Lagg, and of which the collective thickness must exceed 

 1000 feet. These are succeeded by a very intricate and 

 numerous series of strata of different substances, alternat- 

 ing in a most irregular manner, and occupying a consi- 

 derable tract. The number and variety of the alterna- 

 tions occurring among these beds are such, that it would 

 be little less wearisome to the reader's than to the writer's 

 patience to detail them : from the minuteness of many 

 of them, the enumeration would amount perhaps to 

 hundreds. At the same time, as they have rarely any 

 great lateral continuity, it is scarcely possible that two 

 observers should agree in the enumeration ; the more 

 so that in many cases there is such confusion as to pre- 

 vent a fair and free examination. I shall therefore forbear 

 to record that which, even if perfect, it would be useless 



* To speak strictly, I should say that the dip is to the north, with 

 slight variations, as far as the Cock and a little beyond it, becoming 

 W. N. W. only at the point where the junction of the sandstone 

 with the schist is visible. 



