To Mountain Tarn 



Beginning with the Lerwick sandstone as a 

 base, the road so far as I can now picture it, 

 and I have passed over more than once was an 

 object lesson in earth lore. It laid bare the 

 structure of the island, if not also of Scotland. 

 I cannot recall, anywhere else, quite so vivid a 

 revelation. 



From under the tilted sandstone, lime cropped 

 to the surface. The way was laid in lime. And 

 by the roadside, where in the south are whin- 

 stones, were piles of limestone waiting for the 

 hammer. Anon a stretch of road glinted with 

 mica schist, another glittered with gneiss ; still 

 another was golden toned with broken-down 

 granite. The road glitters and glints and passes 

 into gold before me. In the stone-breaker's 

 corner, appeared, in succession, piles of silver or 

 golden sheen. 



It was a picture as well as a revelation, this 

 road of varied hue ; white or pink with sandstone, 

 blue with lime, silvery with mica or gneiss, 

 golden with granite. A change on some southern 

 roads, so wearisome and headachy in their dusty 

 grey. A stonebreaker in Fife once told me to 

 go a mile further on, and I would see bonnie 

 metal that man had a soul in him. Straight- 

 way the whinstone changed to porphyrite, the 

 grey ceased, and the road was paved with 

 pink. This Shetland road was of still bonnier 

 metal. 



H 97 



