356 PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 15, 



grey, studded thick with stones of all sizes, from the merest pebble 

 up to blocks some tons in weight. Many of these (both the large 

 and the small) are marked with parallel striae and scratches in the 

 line of greatest length. In these sections a large proportion of the 

 stones and boulders are evidently water-worn, especially those of 

 granite, which are sometimes as round as cannon-balls. I saw, 

 however, but few traces of stratification in the drift between these 

 two villages, although not unfrequently thin seams* of finely lami- 

 nated silt did occur in various parts of the mass. I did not fall in with 

 any clearly marked striae on the rock-surfaces below the drift of this 

 valley; but near a place called Brathens, in the neighbourhood of 

 Banchory, I observed some of the humps of hard gneiss ground down 

 very much on their western exposure. 



The side glens frequently contain a great thickness of drift, gene- 

 rally of a looser and sandier character than that of the main valley; 

 and the same is the complexion of the deposit along the Dee itself 

 towards its higher part. 



There are a multitude of glens that branch off from this river in 

 the Braemar district, many of which I examined up to their extre- 

 mities. In these mountain-valleys I found the steep hill-sides ex- 

 hibiting little save their own rocky debris ; but all along the midst 

 of such depressions there was generally a considerable thickness of 

 sand and gravel, full of stones and containing many large blocks. 



In- Glen Caich (or Glen Candlic, as it is sometimes called), which 

 is situated on the east side of the granite mountain of Ben-a-Buird, 

 I found this deposit spread over the whole bottom of the glen, rising 

 to similar heights on both sides of the stream, its general depth 

 where I examined it being from 30 to 50 feet. It consisted almost 

 wholly of stratified sand and gravel, evidently well washed and de- 

 posited from water. Imbedded in various parts of it were many 

 boulders of red granite like that of the neighbouring mountain ; a 

 few of them were from 7 to 14 feet in diameter. Some were rounded, 

 some angular. Grooved or glacially scratched fragments appeared 

 to be rare; for I noticed but one boulder showing them at all distinctly. 

 Much of the deposit containing these blocks consists oijine sand, often 

 laminated and containing along with the granite much debris of 

 quartz-rock. 



This spot was at an elevation of nearly 2000 feet, and is situated 

 close beside Caich shooting-lodge at the head of Glen Sluggan. The 

 same deposit is found all along Glen Caich (which is a branch of the 

 Quoich), down to the valley of the Dee ; it also extends somewhat 

 further up the glen, but soon thins out; and about the base of Ben 

 Avon the streams are found running along between bare slopes of 

 crumbling granite. 



There is another glen, which, commencing at Loch Etichan on the 

 N.E. flank of Ben Muic Dhui, joins Glen Lui at the shooting-lodge 

 of Lord Fife. This ravine is known as " the Derry." 



Loch Etichan, by a sympiesometrical measurement of Prof. Dickie, 



* These seams are scarcely ever horizontal, and are often curved in an odd 

 manner. 



