135 



EXCURSION VII. 



BY THE WESTERN SHORE. 



64. THREE interesting excursions may be made from Loch 

 Ranza one across the granite nucleus, one by the western 

 shore, and a third back to Corrie. From noiie of them, 

 however, will it be easy to return to this place on the same 

 day; they may therefore be taken at different times, after 

 an interval. Most tourists will prefer the last a return to 

 Corrie by the inland rout. 



A walk by the shore, from Loch Rauza to Dougrie, about 

 eleven miles, will more amply reward the lover of the lonely, 

 the wild and picturesque, and the botanist, than it will the 

 geologist. Still there is the slate to study ; the whole walk 

 is upon slate; and the many changes in its mineral character, 

 the effects of former sea action upon it, as shewn in the 

 ancient cliff, which in some places advances boldly on the 

 shore, and in others retires inland, and as compared with the 

 like action on the sandstone, will form interesting subjects of 

 inquiry. Abrupt changes in dip will be noticed in the 

 slate, at the north side of Glen Catacol. With the exception 

 of a few singular inversions, due probably to dikes, it 

 maintains a pretty uniform dip and inclination, S. 40 E. 

 at about 40, till we approach Glen Catacol, north of which 

 an anticlinal seems to occur, owing to an advance of the 

 granite in the direction of the bay. On one side the slate 

 rises up towards the granite, as if thrown off from it, the dip 

 being 1ST. 65 W. at 53 ; on the other it dips E. and S.E., 

 at about 30 to 40. But this dip is not maintained : it is 

 sometimes directed towards the granite, in other places 

 " end on " to it, or southwards, and in others again off the 

 nucleus, or nearly west ; but there is not observed here that 



