CHAP. xv. RAMBLE TO BENCHEILT. 229 



various shapes, but never at the hase line. In truth, I 

 do not remember ever seeing the base line of a section 

 of boulder clay until I saw this one." 



From Gills Bay, Dick went westwards to the bay of 

 Scotland Haven, where he found various remains of the 

 Asterolepis. He brought away a few of them, more by 

 way of memorial than because of their value. "The 

 slates from this locality on to Dunnet," he says, " dip 

 east-north-east, and in many places they are in com- 

 plete confusion. As I passed homewards, my thoughts 

 reverted to the ignorance of those who imagine that 

 Caithness strata have in general one particular dip one 

 'general dip.' A greater delusion never entered the 

 brain-box of mortal man." 



Dick's next ramble was to Bencheilt, about twenty- 

 five miles south of Thurso. His wish was to examine 

 the granitic de'bris, and to correct the observations made 

 during his midnight journey to Dunbeath about three 

 years before. He went by Sordal and Spittle Hill, 

 where the strata dipped east. At the thirteenth mile- 

 stone, he found the granitic de'bris, and it continued to 

 Stemster Hill. Passing a Druidical pillar, nine feet 

 high, he went on to Bencheilt. He was twenty miles 

 from home. His time was nearly up ; yet he determined 

 bo ascend the mountain. Observing, however, that the 

 Loch of Stemster was close at hand, and that a Druid's 

 temple stood on its side, he resolved to go over and see 

 the great antiquarian monument. 



" The Druidical temple," he says, " is not a circle. 



It is shaped like a horse-shoe like an old-fashioned 

 11* 



