110 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR, 



ing to the top of the cliffs, along a water-course, we reached 

 the ridge, just as the fog came rolling downwards from the 

 peaked brow of the Storr into the flat moory valley, and the 

 melancholy lochans roughened and darkened in the rain. We 

 were both particularly wet ere we reached Portree. 



In exploring our Scotch formations, I have had frequent 

 occasion, in Boss, Sutherland, Caithness, and now once more 

 in Skye, to pass over ground described by Sir R Murchison ; 

 and in every instance have I found myself immensely his 

 debtor. His descriptions possess the merit of being true : 

 they are simple outlines often, that leave much to be filled 

 up by after discovery ; but, like those outlines of the skilful 

 geographer that fix the place of some island or strait, though 

 they may not entirely define it, they always indicate the exact 

 position in the scale of the formations to which they refer. 

 They leave a good deal to be done in the way of mapping out 

 the interior of a deposit, if I may so speak ; but they leave 

 nothing to be done in the way of ascertaining its place. The 

 work accomplished is bonajlde work, actual, solid, not to 

 be done over again, work such as could be achieved in only 

 the school of Dr William Smith, the father of English Geo- 

 logy. I have found much to admire, too, in the sections of 

 Sir R Murchison. His section of this part of the coast, for 

 example, strikes from the extreme northern part of Skye to 

 the island of Holm, thence to Scrapidale in Rasay, thence 

 along part of the coast of Scalpa, thence direct through the 

 middle of Pabba, and thence to the shore of the Bay of Laig. 

 The line thus taken includes, in regular sequence in the de- 

 scending order, the whole Oolitic deposits of the Hebrides, 

 from the Cornbrash, with its overlying freshwater outliers of 

 mayhap the Weald, down to where the Lower Lias rests on 

 the primary red sandstones of Sleat. It would have cost 

 M'Culloch less exploration to have written a volume than it 

 must have cost Sir R. Murchison to draw this single line ; 



