BUTE. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 447 



greatest elevation which Bute presents. The outline of 

 this ridge is, throughout nearly its whole extent, smooth 

 and unbroken; but it terminates at the northernmost 

 extremity of the island by a number of irregular hills 

 of less elevation ; crowded together and intersected by 

 small valleys variously transverse to the principal bearing 

 of the ridge, and presenting broken and rocky es- 

 carpements. The same irregular arrangement prevails in 

 the tract included between the bays of Etrick and Scalspie 

 on the one side, and those of Kaimes and Rothsay on the 

 other. The highest elevations of the hills in this tract are 

 equal to those in the portion last described ; but while the 

 summits are more detached, the tendency of the valleys 

 which separate them is still transverse to the position 

 of the main ridge, and to the general outline of the island. 

 The hills of this division are also marked by the rugged- 

 ness of their outlines, and by the quantity of naked rock 

 which they present ; features by which they are con- 

 spicuously distinguished from the high tract immediately 

 adjoining. From these circumstances it would be natural 

 to expect, that, either the positions of the strata, or the 

 nature of the substances which form these two portions 

 of the primary division of Bute, so differing in character, 

 were in themselves different : but the geologist who must 

 lay down the plan of his investigations in every unknown 

 country, from indications of this nature, and must 

 act on probabilities founded upon these and similar 

 appearances, will, in this case, find them to be fallacious 

 guides. The future geological details will show, that the 

 whole of these rocks, if not of similar, are of analogous 

 composition; and that the changes which actually take 

 place in them, are in no respect correspondent to the 

 variations in their disposition and general outline. A 

 still more remarkable circumstance attends them. What- 

 ever varieties of composition occur throughout the whole 

 of this primary district, or whatever the direction of the 

 valleys and ridges may be, the direction and dip of the 



