284 GEOLOGICAL LETTERS AND NOTES 



week, and particularly in the inaccessible and ragged S. West- 

 ern part of it, where I have noted many fossil beds entirely 

 overlooked by MacCuUoch, and which have a direct bearing npon 

 my ultimate object at Brora. Fortunately we had some kind 

 friends with whom Madame remained. We re-embarked for Oban 

 which, with Kerrera, occupied us a day, coasted by Loch Etive 



and to Fort William, where we rejoined our 



carriage, visited Glencoe, got to the summit of Nevis, and 

 thought of you and Cheviots amidst the black Porphyries ! To 

 the Parallel Roads, and thence by Glengarry, Glen Loyne and 

 Glen Shiel to this Isle, which we reached three days ago, and are 

 now safely housed. Refreshed by the comforts of my friend 

 Lord MacDonald's house, we shall be able to encounter the 

 fatigues of Loch Scavaig and Talisker. I hope to quit this 

 hospitable Isle in about a week, and we then cross by Kyle 

 Haken and Lochalsh to Dingwall and Golspie, which latter place 

 I shall not reach till the last days of this month. I am find- 

 ing further analogies in this island. I hope to meet yon soon 

 after my arrival at Brora. Direct to me at Golspie Inn. I long for 

 a fellow-workman. 



I forget the days of the month and have only been brought to my 

 recollections by intercourse once more in this Castle with the English 

 world by a sight of newspapers. 



I remembered my promise to write to you, and hope this letter 

 may reach you in time. Mrs Murchison begs to send her kind re- 

 gards to yonr sister, and believe me always. 



Yours most sincerely etc. 



P.S. — If yon see Witham^ in Edinburgh tell him how much I 

 regretted to find him fled when I called upon him. I have traced 

 him thro' Glencoe, where I have seen the effects of his persevering 

 hand and hammer. I hope to meet him on my return in Sept." 



One result of Mr Murchison's visit to the North of England 

 and to Scotland in 1826, as partially recorded in the foregoing 

 letters, was his learned paper on Stratified Deposits in the 

 North of Scotland, read before the Geological Society of Lon- 

 don on January 5th and February 2nd 1827. In the early 



* Henry Witham of Lartington F.G.S., F.R.S., etc. Author of " Obser- 

 vations on Fossil Vegetables, 1831." A letter from him to Mr Cnlley is 

 printed in the following pages. 



