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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Feb. 6, 



beds from Inisbae to Contin have, 011 the whole, a south-easterly 

 dip. On the shores of Loch Garve the gneiss is crumpled into in- 

 tricate folds ; but the prevalent dip is still south-easterly, and con- 

 tinues so until the Old Red conglomerates supervene at Con tin. 

 Alternations of micaceous gneiss, mica-schist, and grey quartz-rock 

 form the prevailing rocks of the district. From Contin we recrossed 

 the country to Loch Carron. The same gneissose schists and quartzose 

 flagstones were observed along the road, with a general south-easterly 

 dip, but with several visible folds and many covered parts where a 

 north-westerly dip may occur, like that of the mountain Aigean on 

 Loch Fannich, before described*. 



Loch Hourn by Loch Quoich to the Caledonian Canal. — "We 

 examined also a line of section from about the middle of Loch Hourn 

 to Loch Oich in the Great Glen. The rocks which form the mag- 

 nificent jagged mountains that overshadow Loch Hourn are dark 

 micaceous flagstones. They have a general south-easterly dip at 

 high angles and are usually flat-bedded and regular, though some- 

 times locally crumpled. They occur all up the wild gorge or pass 

 that rises from the head of the loch to the height of 1000 feet in 

 the space of a mile. The top of this pass forms part of the main 

 ridge of the country, and presents the singular phenomenon of a 

 watershed only a mile distant from the sea on the one side, and 

 fully fifty miles on the other. All the crags and rocks along the 

 sides of the pass have been smoothed and striated, by glacial action, 

 on the faces that look up the glen, while those which point down to 

 the sea are rough and irregular. There is no drift in the glen nor 

 at the head of Loch Hourn. 



From the top of the pass to the bend of Loch Quoich the same 

 rocks continue in the same south-easterly inclination. Near Mr. 

 Ellice's house at Glen Quoich t, however, a line of synclinal axis 

 crosses the lake and runs northward to Glen Shiel, where we found it 

 well marked. On the east, or rather east-south-east of this bine (for 

 its direction is nearly north-north-east), the strata are reversed to 

 the north-west, and this dip continues along Loch Quoich and for 

 several miles to the eastward. They then undulate and become ob- 

 scured partly by granite masses and partly by the deep sandy accu- 

 mulations of Glengarry, so that their relations towards the Great Glen 

 were not satisfactorily ascertained. At Invergarry Inn, however, 

 only about two miles from Loch Oich, the gneissose rocks had a de- 

 cided north-westerly dip. 



The most instructive sections along this fine of country were 

 those in Loch Hourn, and on the road between that deep fiord and 

 Tomdoun Inn. "We would especially instance two rocks or cuttings 

 on the wayside ; one about three miles west from the house of Glen 

 Quoich, the other at the seventh milestone west from Tomdoun Inn. 

 The first of these shows in the clearest possible manner how deceptive 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. p. 387. 



t Since our visit to Glen Quoich, our hospitable host, the Rt. Hon. Edward 

 Ellice. has acquired all the lands of Glengarry, so that Ms estates now range from 

 Loch Oich to Loch Hourn. a distance of about 30 miles. 



