362 RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST. 



features are presented by the same deposits in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Inverness ; the undulatory Conglomerate com- 

 posing, to the north and west of the town, the picturesque 

 wavy ridge comprising the twin-eminences of Munlochy Bay, 

 the Ord Hill of Kessock, Craig Phadrig, and the fir-covered 

 hill beyond in the line of the Great Valley ; while, on the 

 south and east, the rectilinear ichthyolitic member of the sys- 

 tem, with the arenaceous beds that lie over it, form the con- 

 tinuous straight-lined ridge which runs on from beyond the 

 moor of the Leys to beyond the moor of Culloden. There is 

 a pretty little loch in this dwarf Highlands of the Brahaii 

 district, into which the old Celtic prophet Kenneth Ore, when, 

 like Prospero, he relinquished his art, buried " deep beyond 

 plummet sound" the magic stone in which he was wont to 

 see the distant and the future. And with the loch it con- 

 tains a narrow hermit-like dell, bearing but a single row of 

 fields, and these of small size, along its flat bottom, and whose 

 steep gray sides of rustic Conglomerate resemble Cyclopean 

 walls. It, besides, includes among its hills the steep hill of 

 Knock Farril, which, rising bluff and bold immediately over 

 the southern slopes of Strathpeffer, adds so greatly to the 

 beauty of the valley, and bears atop perhaps the finest spe- 

 cimen of the vitrified fort in Scotland ; and the bold front- 

 age of cliff presented by the group to the west, over the plea- 

 sure grounds of Brahan, is, though on no very large scale, 

 one of the most characteristic of the Conglomerate formation 

 which can be seen anywhere. It is formed of exactly such 

 cliffs ae the landscape gardener would make if he could, 

 cliffs with their rude prominent pebbles breaking the light 

 over every square foot of surface, and furnishing footing, by 

 their innumerable projections, to many a green tuft of moss, 

 and many a sweet little flower. Some of the masses, too, 

 that have rolled down from the precipices among the Brahan 

 woods far below, and stand up, like the ruins of cottages, 



