122 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OB, 



lie in this bar of the frame, to return once more to my old 

 illustration, as if it had been cut out of a piece of cross- 

 grained deal, in which the annular bands, instead of ranging 

 lengthwise, ran diagonally from side to side ; stratum leans 

 over stratum, dipping towards the west at an angle of about 

 thirty degrees ; and as in a continuous line of more than seven 

 miles there seem no breaks or repetitions in the strata, the 

 thickness of the deposit must be enormous, not less, I should 

 suppose, than from six to eight thousand feet. Like the 

 Lower Old Red Sandstones of Cromarty and Moray, the red 

 arenaceous strata occur in thick beds, separated from each 

 other by bands of a grayish-coloured stratified clay, on the 

 planes of which I could trace with great distinctness ripple 

 markings ; but in vain did I explore their numerous folds 

 for the plates, scales, and fucoid impressions which abound in 

 the gray argillaceous beds of the shores of the Moray and 

 Cromarty Friths. It would, however, be rash to pronounce 

 them non-fossiliferous, after the hasty search of a single morn- 

 ing, unpardonably so in one who had spent very many morn- 

 ings in putting to the question the gray stratified beds of Ross 

 and Cromarty, ere he succeeded in extorting from them the 

 secret of their organic riches. 



We set out about half-past ten for Scuir More, through the 

 Red Sandstone valley in which Loch Scresort terminates, with 

 one of Mr Swanson's people, a young active lad of twenty, 

 for our guide. In passing upwards for nearly a mile along 

 the stream that falls into the upper part of the loch, and lays 

 bare the strata, we saw no change in the character of the sand- 

 stone. Red arenaceous beds of great thickness alternate with 

 grayish-coloured bands, composed of a ripple-marked micaceous 

 slate and a stratified clay. For a depth of full three thousand 

 feet, and I know not how much more, for I lacked time to 

 trace it further, the deposit presents no other variety : the 

 thick red bed of at least a hundred yards succeeds the thin 



