﻿1861.] MTTRCHISOJT AND GEIKIE HIGHLANDS. 205 



tofted, as at Ault Namuie, where they are curved and convoluted as 

 at Loch Quoich, though the prevailing dip is still south-easterly. 



At the watershed we begin to meet with a reversed or N.W. dip. 

 The same micaceous strata are again traversed, with here and there 

 a knob of quartzose granite. About a mile east of the watershed, 

 contorted rocks are exposed in the bed of a stream which is crossed 

 by the road. 



At the foot of Glen Finnan, near the spot where Prince Charles 

 first unfurled his flag, the dip changes to N., and then immediately 

 to N.W. As we proceed eastward the strike becomes nearly IS", and S., 

 and the strata gradually assume a more gnarled, twisted appearance, 

 granite being visible here and there. Such highly metamorphosed 

 rocks continue to near the head of Loch Eil, where the micaceous 

 series is replaced by hard grey quartz-rock, first in highly twisted 

 and even vertical beds, with granite-veins. The dip then turns to 

 E. 18° S. at 25°, exactly like the undulating quartz-rock of Glen- 

 garry ; after which the dip is reversed to W. 30° N. at 20°-25°. 



About one mile east from the head of the loch we observed frag- 

 ments of red felspar in the streams. Two miles further on, the dip 

 was S.E. at 20°-25°. At the distance of another mile the south- 

 easterly dip still continued, but at a very gentle angle. 



One mile and a half east of Eassafern the hard grey quartzose beds 

 dip W. 25° N. at 17°-20°. Thence they undulate for four miles 

 along the margin of the loch. We next found them in well-marked 

 strata separated by layers of micaceous schist in a quarry by the 

 roadside, where they dipped nearly due W. at 25°-90°. They are 

 traversed by innumerable veins of a pink felspathic rock ; and larger 

 masses of a dark hornblendic rock are occasionally seen. Further 

 on the dip still continues westerly, and, at Avat, is at an angle of 

 from 25° to 30°. Four miles from Fort William another quarry 

 occurs close to the road, where hard grey quartz-rock, highly mica- 

 ceous in certain layers, and even passing into true mica-schist, dips 

 W. 16° N. at 30°-40°. The rock is traversed by veins of quartz 

 containing mica. 



Near the church of Kilmallie the angle becomes much higher, 

 the jN\W. dip still continuing. Beyond this we reach an area of 

 intense metamorphism, where porphyry and granite are intermingled 

 with the schists and quartz-rocks in great abundance along the 

 valley of the Caledonian Canal. This valley, moreover, is obscured 

 by enormous accumulations of sand and gravel. 



The annexed diagram shows the arrangement of the strata along 

 the line just described. It will be seen that, viewing the country 

 on the large scale, we are here presented with a wide synclinal 

 trough of the schistose series, from beneath which, along either side, 

 the underlying quartzose rocks come to the surface. 



3. Repetition of the Lower Silurian Quartz-rocks and Limestones 

 East of the Line of the Great Glen. 



Line of Great Glen or Caledonian Canal. — We have shown that the 

 quartz-rocks and limestones of Sutherland range south-westwards 



