1858.] MURCHISON NOETHEEN HIGHLAISTDS, ETC. 387 



Then, again, there may be many curvatures, breaks, and repetitions 

 which I was unable to observe. One considerable fold I did indeed 

 notice in the heart of Ross-shire, in the mountain of Aigean on Loch 

 Faunich, where thinly laminated beds of hard grey quartzose gneiss 

 have a reversed dip to the W.N.W., whilst the country to the east 

 around Loch Luichart is much faulted and broken up. 



But, whilst I adhere to the belief that the great mass of the 

 micaceous flag-Hke and younger gneissose rocks, which succeed on 

 the east, are of more recent age than the quartz-rocks and fossili- 

 ferous limestones of the north-west of Sutherland, I repeat that the 

 genuine old gneiss may be brought to the surface in many places in 

 the interior, and even on the east coast, in parts of Banff and Aberdeen. 

 Such points may be left for future labourers to determine. In the 

 mean time I believe that the so-called gneiss of the Sutors of Cro- 

 marty, and the rocks extending southwards to Flowerburn, Kincordy, 

 and Eosemarkie near Fortrose, on the east coast of Boss, are simply 

 members of a flagstone series which has been much altered by the 

 intrusion of huge granitic and felspathic veinstones. Fine examples 

 of the conversion of these rocks, in various states of change from an 

 earthy flagstone and shale into a crystalline gneiss, are seen in the 

 cuttings of the new high road which descends from the Old Bed 

 Sandstone of the Black Isle down to Eosemarkie, whilst the eruptive 

 rock of compact felspar protrudes in deep-red bosses on the shore at 

 Kincordy and rises into the altered and gneissose hill of Lamy to the 

 south of Ethie. The same eruptive felspathic rock, similar to one 

 at Helmsdale, which passes into the granite of the Ord of Caithness, 

 occupies a wooded coast-ridge between Fortrose and Avoch, and 

 throws off the Old Bed Sandstone, at a high angle, towards the 

 interior of the Black Isle. 



It is obvious, therefore, that the former mineralogical classification 

 of rocks, whereby all these strata, of such very different ages, were 

 merged with the same family as the Old Oneiss which lies beneath vast 

 thicknesses of rocks now known to be of Cambrian and Silurian age, 

 has been highly detrimental to the progress of sound geological science. 



The Crystalline Stratijied Rocks of other parts of the Highlands 

 compared with those of Sutherland. — It is not in my power to de- 

 scribe in detail the relations of all the stratified crystalline rocks of 

 the Highlands, though I have traversed their chief masses on many 

 parallels. I presume, however, that the same order of succession as 

 in Sutherland may be applied to the stratified crystalline rocks in 

 the west of Boss- shire and Inverness-shire, which occupy the same 

 place in the general series. Thus, when we extend our examina- 

 tion southwards from Sutherland and Boss on the west coast, we 

 find, on entering into any of the numerous bays or marine lochs 

 which indent the coast from Loch Broom to Loch Duich, which is 

 on the edge of Inverness-shire, that quartzose, micaceous, and chlo- 

 ritic rocks, with limestones in their lower members, are successively 

 exhibited, — the whole having a dominant strike from jS'.N'.W. to 

 E.S.E., and all having a prevalent inclination to the E.S.E. 



Professor Nicol has already shown how, in many places, such rocks 



