EXCURSION V. 117 



may be found in the sandstone. The summit is strewn with 

 granite blocks of moderate size. 



In crossing from Maoldon to the fall of the White Water, 

 we pass the old red sandstone and slate bands; but no 

 junctions ai*e visible till we reach the base of the fall where 

 the burn issues from the wild corrie. Judging from the 

 position of the granite masses on the hill-side, one would not 

 expect the junction so far up it takes place at the base of 

 the great fall. The best way to approach it, and to observe 

 the changes in the strata, is to pass up by the south side 

 of the stream. Here the usual chocolate-coloured Old Red 

 is seen, and in it a great bed, apparently not a dike, of 

 decomposing greenstone, with veins of calcspar and arragonite. 

 Gradually the sandstone becomes harder and more slaty, and 

 at length almost a quartzite. This is followed by a blue, 

 very hard flinty slate or quartzite, streaked with white, and 

 in some parts containing felspar crystals, succeeded in its 

 turn by a nearly white quartz slate, similar to that already 

 described (Art. 44). It has in many parts a blue tinge, as if 

 from transfusion of the colouring matter of the slate. This 

 quartzose slate is several yards thick, and is in contact with 

 the granite, here a hard and tough close-grained compound 

 of quartz and felspar that is, a eurite the mica, if occa- 

 sionally present, being in very small quantity. On the 

 south bank, over the junction, there is a mass of the ordinary 

 dark slate ; it shews twisting of the layers and banding with 

 blue and white, but is less altered than that in contact with 

 the gray quartzite in the stream. The metamorphism at this 

 junction is very remarkable; but the student must be 

 prepared to encounter many difficulties in his ascent of the 

 channel, and to submit now and again, with the best grace 

 he may, to a shower-bath from the dashing spray, as the 

 water bounds from ledge to ledge of the long fall. 



One can easily pass from this point to the top of Goatfell 

 in three quarters of an hour; but we must now hasten to 

 our welcome rest at the pleasant Inn of Corrie. 



