334 RAMBLES OP A GEOLOGIST. 



farther to confirm in relation to that middle portion of the 

 tract in which the parish of Avoch is situated. The geologic 

 records, unlike the Sybilline books, grow in volume and num- 

 ber as one pauses and hesitates over them ; demanding, how- 

 ever, with every addition to their bulk, a larger and yet larger 

 sum of epochs and of ages. 



The sun had got low in the western sky, and I had at least 

 some eight or nine miles of rough road still before me ; but 

 the day had been a happy and not unsuccessful one, and so 

 its hard work had failed to fatigue. The shadows, however, 

 were falling brown and deep on the bleak Maolbuie, as I 

 passed, on my return, the solitary cairn ; and it was dark 

 night long ere I reached Cromarty. Next morning I quitted 

 the town for the upper reaches of the Frith, to examine yet 

 further the superficial deposits and travelled boulders of the 

 district. 



I landed at Invergordon a little after noon, from the Leith 

 steamer, that, on its way to the upper ports of the Moray 

 and Dingwall Friths, stops at Cromarty for passengers every 

 "Wednesday ; and then passing direct through the village, 

 I took the western road which winds along the shore towards 

 Strathpeffer, skirting on the right the ancient province of the 

 Munroes. The day was clear and genial ; and the wide-spread- 

 ing woods of this part of the country, a little touched by their 

 autumnal tints of brown and yellow, gave a warmth of hue 

 to the landscape, which at an earlier season it wanted. A 

 few slim streaks of semi-transparent mist, that barred the dis- 

 tant hill-peaks, and a few towering piles of intensely white 

 cloud, that shot across the deep blue of the heavens, gave 

 warning that the earlier part of the day was to be in all pro- 

 bability the better part of it, and that the harvest of obser- 

 vation which it was ultimately to yield might be found to 

 depend on the prompt use made of the passing hour. What 

 first attracts the attention of the geologist, in journeying west- 



