388 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DoC. 1, 



overlie the older conglomerates and sandstones, which I consider to 

 be of Cambrian age. The only marked distinctive change in the 

 mineral character of these stratified rocks as they range southwards 

 is, that the quartzose or purely siliceous character is not so dominant 

 as in Sutherland and the north-western parts of Eoss-shire, the arid, 

 bare, whitened surface of the weathered quartz-rock being no longer 

 dominant. Thus, in the headlands between Loch Kishom and Loch 

 Carron, the range of bedded limestone is seen, just as in Assynt and 

 Durness, to possess the same joints and oblique rude cleavage, whilst 

 the conformably overlying series consists of a variety of quartzose 

 and chloritic beds, some of pinkish, others of grey colours, and some 

 containing mica and asbestos, — the whole being clearly overlaid by a 

 clay-slate, which ranges down to the shore of Loch Carron. 



If we make our observations in a more southern parallel, and pass 

 across Ross-shire from Lochalsh and Kintail on the west to the Old 

 Red Sandstone frontier on the east, the general succession is the same, 

 though there are considerable changes of lithological character when 

 the same rocks are followed southwards or S.S.W. upon their strike. 

 On the south side of Loch Duich, which affords an excellent trans- 

 verse section, some of the calcareous bands of highly crystalline 

 limestone are white, whilst others are chloritic and greenish and 

 much resemble the Connemara marble of Ireland, — such bands being 

 finely intercalated either in micaceous flagstones in parts calcareous, 

 or in finely laminated slaty flagstones which pass into a rock which 

 must be called gneiss, as it has layers of quartz, felspar, and some 

 mica. Points of syenite protrude here and there, and diversify the 

 projecting rocky bosses. Now, although the prevalent dip of all the 

 strata near Totig is to the E.S.E., we see, in ascending to Inverinat, 

 great flexures, by which the strata, curved at high angles, give their 

 exquisitely beautiful and conical outlines to the mountains in which 

 Loch Duich is embosomed. 



At the head of Loch Duich, however, near Inverinat, the dip to the 

 E.S.E. is resumed, at an angle of about 25°, which angle increases to 

 50°, 60°, and 70° as you proceed eastward through the lofty and 

 rugged defile called the Bealloch of Kintail. There the peaks which 

 form the steep watershed of the north-west of Scotland (in a part of 

 which the splendid Ealls of Glomach occur, where the water cascades 

 over a lofty precipice, and not distant more than three or four 

 miles from the salt-water bays) are composed of the same flag-like 

 pinkish quartzose gneiss, the beds of which are seen to be finally 

 thrown off to the E.S.E., thus clearly overlying the limestone and 

 other masses which occupy the shores of Loch Duich. 



In pursuing the mountain-track through the BeaUoch of Kintail 

 to the head of Loch Affric, I found that, in descending on the long- 

 sloping moorlands by which the waters glide away to the east, the 

 stratified masses become more horizontal, with occasional undula- 

 tions, — so that very much the same class of quartzose rocks is con- 

 tinued very far eastwards, their bare stony summits constituting the 

 favourite resort of ptarmigan, their slopes the haunt of deer, and 

 their valleys the breeding-grounds of grouse. The undulations of 



