1869.] 



JOASS SUTHERLAND GOLD-FIELD. 



319 



gneissose strata (fig. 2). In a paper "On the Metamorphic 

 Rocks of the Banffshire coast, the Scarabins, and a portion of 



rig. 1. — Section showing Granite in Mica-schist at Kil-Donnan Lodge, 



12 1 2 1 



1. Micaceous beds, dipping N.E. 2. Granite (b). 



Pig. 2. — Oranitiform rock in decomposed Gneiss, Saisgitl. 



JMMTlJIEjm 



Mi 



mi 



1. Decomposed gneissose rocks, dipping S.S.W. and E.S.E. 

 2. G-ranitoid rock (c). 



East Sutherland," read before the Geological Society in May 1862, 

 Prof. Harkness says : — ^' The correspondence of the strike of the plu- 

 toiiic masses with that of the metamorphic rocks has been noticed 

 in connexion with these several rocks in Banffshire. In Sutherland 

 it is even more apparent, and supports the inference that here plu- 

 tonic masses do not perform the office of axes. Their mode of 

 occurrence rather tends to the conclusion that the sedimentary rocks 

 were elevated, flexurcd, and contorted previous to the period when 

 the granites made their appearance in the sedimentary rocks, and 

 that the granites have conformed in their course to the strike of the 

 previously elevated strata. There are here abundant features which 

 would support the conclusion that granite is, in this district, rather 

 the result of an excessive amount of metamorphic action than a plu- 

 tonic rock as regards its origin." I venture to think that the 

 coarse-grained porphyritic granite of the Ord (a) should perhaps be 

 regarded as truly plutonic and associated with upheaval, from its 

 coincidence in strike with a great line of fault which traverses Scot- 

 land from N.E. to S.W. along the great Caledonian valley. 



It is true, indeed, that instead of dipping away from this supposed 

 plutonic and upheaving mass the strata to the N.W. dip towards it, 

 becoming almost vertical as they approach the line of contact. This, 

 however, might be accounted for on the supposition that the up- 

 heaved and disrupted rocks, already dipping towards the intrusive 

 mass, would, until it hardened and could support them, dip still 

 more decidedly in the same direction as the result of their weight ; 



