﻿586 ME. E. B. BAILEY ON RECUMBENT FOLDS IN THE [NOV. I9IO, 



24. Recumbent Folds in the Schists of the Scottish Highlands. 1 

 By Edward Battersby Bailey, B. A., F.G.S. (Read May 25th, 

 1910.) 



[Plates XLII-XLIY— Map & Sections.] 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Introduction 586 



(a) Historical Review 586 



(6) General Statement of the Problem 592 



II. Stratigraphy 595 



III. Tectonics 600 



(a) The Appin Core 600 



(b) The Aonach Beag Core 603 



(c) The Ballachulish Core 601 



(d) The Folded District of Kinlochleven 614 



IV. Conclusions 617 



V. Bibliography 617 



I. Introduction. 



The district discussed in this paper includes a considerable portion 

 of two typical Highland counties, Inverness-shire and Argyllshire. 

 It lies in the main between Loch Linnhe, on the north-west, and 

 a chain of granitic intrusions which, on the south-east, connect the 

 Moor of Rannoch with the upper portion of Loch Etive. It 

 extends northwards to the River Spean, and southwards to Appin 

 and Loch Creran. 



The region thus denned is dissected by an intricate system of 

 deeply cut glens, flanked by some of the loftiest mountains of Great 

 Britain, including the giant Ben Nevis itself, 4406 feet high. The 

 rock exposures on the mountain sides are remarkably clear, owing 

 to the comparative absence of morainic material. 



The detailed mapping of this district has recently been completed 

 by the Geological Survey, and the results of the work will shortly 

 be published in an official memoir. In the present paper an outline 

 is given of the complicated tectonics of the crystalline schists. 



Before entering on this description brief reference may be made 

 to the results obtained by other workers along similar lines of 

 enquiry. 



(a) Historical Review. 



Geologists are now familiar with the researches of James Nicol 

 [1] , 2 who showed that the gneisses, which Sir Roderick Murchison 

 had described as conformably overlying the fossiliferous strata of 

 the North-West Highlands, are in reality separated from the latter 

 by a powerful dislocation. 



1 Communicated by permission of the Director of H.M. Geological 

 Survey. 



2 These numerals in brackets refer to the Bibliography, § Y, p. 617. 



