﻿1861.] 



MURCHISON AND GETKIE HIGHLANDS. 



131 



we reach Dmmdrynie, about a mile and a half to the south. The 

 schistose series which covers the limestone, however, is well ex- 

 hibited along the roadside. It consists of quartzose, micaceous, 

 fissile, and flaggy strata, to different parts of which the terms 

 quartz-rock, grit, or mica-schist might be correctly applied. The 

 general dip is a gentle one to the E. or E.S.E. ; and as the road quits 

 the lochs and winds along the west side of a broad valley, the 

 strata can be seen to the east, rising terrace over terrace, with the 

 steep fronts facing the west, and the sloping declivities dipping 

 eastward, like their component strata. 



Drumdrynie. — At Dmmdrynie Cottage, which lies on the west 

 side of the road between Inchnadamff and Ullapool, the limestone 

 again appears. Here, too, it is clearly interpolated between a lower 

 quartz-rock and an upper quartzo-micaceous series. It is seen on 

 the gentle ridge behind the cottage ; thence it descends, crosses the 

 stream and the road, and keeps along the roadside as a terrace or 

 escarpment similar to that of Craig-an-Knochan, but greatly lower. 

 The succession can be studied with advantage in the stream, and 

 also along the roadside for fully two miles, where the following 

 section is observable : — 



Fig. 3. — Section South of Drumdrynie Cottage. 



b. Cambrian sandstone and conglomerate. c 2 . Limestone. 

 c\ Quartz-rock. d. G-neissose schists. 



The strata which repose upon the limestone, when traced across 

 the hill to the farm-house of Langwell, are seen to be frequently 

 twisted into crumpled laminae, often highly micaceous. They gra- 

 duate upward into dark-grey or greenish flaggy beds, which at one 

 time might be called gneiss, at another mica-slate, at a third clay- 

 slate ; but by far the most abundant material in their composition 

 is quartz. They are well exposed at the head of Strath-Kennort, a 

 short way above Langwell, where the river bursts through a narrow 

 gorge in some picturesque cascades. The strata here are dark and 

 schistose, with a mass of porphyiitic felstone, running parallel to 

 their strike. 



Strath-Kennort. — Strath-Kennort is a valley which extends in 

 an east-and-west direction from the maritime loch of the same 

 name to the cascades just mentioned. The limestone, after ap- 

 proaching within a short distance from the north side of the strath, 

 is lost under the herbage, though a quantity of fragments and an 

 old kiln may perhaps indicate its site on that side. On the oppo- 



vol. xvri. — part i. o 



