66 GEOLOGY OF ARRAN. 



It lights up the solemn old rocks till they laugh into beauty 

 under its bright spell. Though devoid of vegetation, which 

 might throw bright tints around the rugged surfaces, for 

 the saxifrage and alchemilla, the cryptogramma and other 

 ferns, the club moss and juniper, nestle in shady clefts, and 

 small patches of grass occur only here and there among the 

 blocks, yet are not these bare rocky masses without a cer- 

 tain natural adaptation to produce warm harmonious colour- 

 ing. The three ingredients of granite have peculiar shades 

 and different reflective powers ; oxide of iron, always present 

 as a constituent, passes in decomposing through various rich 

 tints, and the rocky surfaces themselves, smooth or rough, 

 dry or moist, are often dotted with small lichens. The 

 result is a sober but pleasing tint in keeping with the 

 general expression of the mountain scenery ; it runs through 

 various shades of gray, purple, and a tempered red or orange. 

 The effects, seen from Oior-Mhor, are finest in the afternoon. 

 Marvellous contrasts now lie athwart the stony ridges and 

 deep glens, adding a wondrous charm to the scenery. In the 

 depths of Glen Rosa the sun has gone down an hour since, 

 and a deep gloom has settled on the dark recesses of Glen 

 Sannox. Sharp shadows of the western ridge, shewing a 

 perfect profile of its jagged crest, are slowly creeping up the 

 western front of Goatfell, whose summit is bathed in a flood 

 of glorious orange light. Thrown back from rock to rock 

 in mellowed and harmonious tints, it maintains a bright 

 twilight along the base of the western ridge, by which we 

 must descend, and throughout the upper part of Glen Rosa, 

 along which our after path will lie. Taking a last survey of 

 the surrounding peaks in their gorgeous evening tints, and 

 contrasting the bold rocky foregrounds, now flooded with 

 light, with the smoother and fading outlines of the lower 

 hills, we must hasten downwards. The far off landscape we 

 shall see better another day from the summit of Goatfell. 



The low ridge or col connecting the base of Cior-Mhor 

 with the next height to the south breaks down steeply, but 



