RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 



rains had cleared out the deep ravines of the district^ and 

 given to the boulder-clay in which they are scooped a fresh- 

 ness in its section analogous to fresh fracture in rocks of 

 harder consistency, I availed myself of the facilities afforded 

 me in consequence, for exploring it once more. It has long 

 constituted one of the hardest of the many riddles with which 

 our Scottish deposits exercise the patience and ingenuity of 

 the geologist. I remember a time when, after passing a day 

 under its barren scaurs, or hid in its precipitous ravines, I 

 used to feel in the evening as if I had been travelling under 

 the cloud of night, and had seen nothing. It was a morose 

 and taciturn companion, and had no speculation in it I 

 might stand in front of its curved precipices, red, yellow, or 

 gray, according to the prevailing average colour of the rocks 

 on which it rests, and mark their water-rolled boulders, of 

 all qualities and sizes, sticking out in bold relief from the 

 surface, like the rock-like protuberances that roughen the 

 rustic basements of the architect, from the line of the wall ; 

 but I had no open sesame to form vistas through them into 

 the recesses of the past. I saw merely the stiff pasty matrix 

 of which they are composed, and the inclosed pebbles. But 

 the boulder-clay has of late become more sociable ; and, though 

 with much hesitancy and irresolution, like old Mr Spectator 

 on the first formal opening of his mouth, a consequence, 

 doubtless, in both cases of previous habits of silence long in- 

 dulged, it begins to tell its story. And a most curious 

 story it is. 



The morning was clear, but just a little chill ; and a soft 

 covering of snow, that had fallen during the storm on the 

 flat summit of Benwevis, and showed its extreme tenuity by 

 the paleness of its tint of watery blue, was still distinctly 

 visible at the distance of fall twenty miles. The sun, low 

 in the sky, for the hour was early, cast its slant rays 

 athwart the prospect, giving to each nearer bank and hillock, 



