1857.] BOTANY OF BRAEMAR. 283 



district ; hence his observations are more than usually valuable. 

 He says : "All along the valley of the Dee^ and on its southern 

 declivities, are masses of a stratified rock composed of quartz and 

 mica, the former granular but crystalline, the latter in scales, 

 disposed in films or laminae. Portions of this deposit present the 

 characters of quartz rock, but are never, to the thickness of a 

 foot, destitute of laminae and mica. When, as often happens, 

 the alternate layers are very thin, the mica in very small scales, 

 and the quartz intermixed with mica, the rock resembles some 

 varieties of gneiss; but if any felspar at all occurs in it, the 

 quantity is extremely small. The whole mass is thus mica slate. 

 From the sources of the Geaullie eastward to Glen Cluny, the 

 whole space is of this mica slate, presenting the varieties of cha- 

 racter already mentioned, often intersected with quartz veins, 

 and presenting irregular beds of crystalline limestone. The same 

 formation also extends beyond Glen Cluny into Glen Callater, of 

 which it forms all the west side. Just to the west of Castleton, 

 is a large hill, called Morrone, the base of which is composed of 

 quartzose mica slate, in thin and very regular layers, generally 

 almost horizontal. This rock continues as far up as the Linn of 

 Dee, nearly seven miles, but changes its character there, and be- 

 comes decidedly micaceous. No true granite veins have ever 

 been met with by me in this tract, and only one of greenstone, 

 on Glen Ey. There can however be little doubt that the whole 

 geological basis of the tract is granite, which forms the surface of 

 all the higher and many of the lower hills ; and that there is su- 

 perimposed upon it a discontinuous mass of primary slaty rock, 

 traversed by dykes of porphyry. 



To the east of Castleton of Braemar, a small hill, elevated 

 about 300 feet above the Dee, and named Craig Choinnach (the 

 Crag of Kenneth, 'Hhe King,"), forms the extremity of the 

 range which bounds Glen Cluny on the east. In ascending it 

 from the village, you pass through a belt of wood, Ijeyond which 

 the hill-side is covered with a vast quantity of Arbutus Uva-ursi* 

 To the eastward is another rocky prominence of less elevation, 

 but presenting to the Dee a perpendicular rock of great beauty, 

 named, not inappropriately I think, the Lion's Face, but known 

 to the older natives as Craig a' mhurdair, " the Murderer's Crag." 



* About halfway up this crag, PohjsticJmm LoncUtis and Asplenium virkle grow 

 in the greatest profusion, with beautifully chvided forms of Cystopteris fragilis. 



