ON FOSSILS IN THE NORTH-WEST HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 131 



the Committee ready and efficient assistance, a considerable collection of 

 fossils has been made, which are now submitted for inspection to the 

 present meeting. These were obtained from an isolated, steep, rocky islet, 

 called Garveilan, or the Rough Island, a few miles east of Cape Wrath. 

 This island is a bare uninhabited rock, the home of the sea-gull and his 

 associates, which is composed entirely of the Durness limestone. It is fall 

 of fossils, which appear protruding from the weathered surfaces of the 

 rock, the hard but less indurated matrix enclosing them having yielded to 

 the action of the wild weather and the wilder waves of that iron-bound 

 coast. The fossils are so imbedded in the crystalline limestone on the 

 level surfaces, that they can be abstracted only with the greatest difficulty. 

 Hence many of those obtained were got out only in fragments ; but the 

 fossils sent, considering the whole circumstances, are numerous and in 

 singularly good condition. The specimens are mostly of the smaller kinds, 

 the larger not being now obtainable, or having been carried off on pre- 

 vious visits. 



The island is very difficult of access, and can be approached only in 

 the very calmest weather. On one occasion, the late Dr. Bryce and the 

 Secretary sailed, with some friends, to the island for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing fossils, but though the day was calm and the sea unbroken, the 

 great Atlantic swell sweeping round Cape Wrath, which rose against the 

 steep sides of the rock, entirely prevented landing, though anxiously 

 attempted ; and the Rev. Mr. Grant and party, in obtaining the fossils 

 now submitted, narrowly escaped with their lives, the great thunderstorm 

 of June last having overtaken them on their return voyage. 



Mr. Grant has learned from the boatmen that accompanied him that 

 there is another place, on a cape on the mainland, near Durness, con- 

 taining good fossils. This he purposes visiting, if he has not already 

 done so ; but the Secretary has not yet received any fossils from the Dur- 

 ness limestone, besides those sent. 



Some miles east of the Kyle of Durness lies the sea firth called Loch 

 Eribol, on the shores of which there is a great development of the same 

 or a similar limestone, with its associated quarzites and fucoid beds. These 

 rocks give to Loch Eribol its special character of wildness and picturesque- 

 ness. The limestone has been worked, for commercial purposes, at Heilim 

 Inn, on its east shore, where the ferry crosses the loch ; but, though diligent 

 search has been made on the spot, on many occasions, by members of the 

 Committee and by local and other parties, no fossil remains have yet 

 been discovered in that rock. In the thin, brown, shaly strata, called 

 the Fucoid Beds from their contents, very distinct and well-preserved 

 impressions of sea-plants are abundant on Loch Eribol, and along the 

 great limestone strike from north to south. In the thicker-bedded 

 Quartzite which occurs along this strike in immense masses, forming some 

 of the highest mountains, and giving rise to some of the most striking 

 scenery on the North-west coast of Scotland, with its pronounced features 

 of combined grandeur, mass, wildness, and beauty, the only evidences of 

 ancient life hitherto found are certain worm or annelid boi'ings, more 

 or less abundant everywhere, which are very distinct, having been, in most 

 cases, filled up with different-coloured matter. Both of these proofs 

 of organic life in the past have been spoken of and pictured, in the excellent 

 joint paper on these rocks by Sir R. Murchison and Professor Geikie. 



During this year, however, a discovery has been made in this Quartzite, 

 in the shape of certain fossil remains which have not yet been described, 



k2 



