1858.] MTJRCHisoisr — northern highlands, etc. 399 



mica-schist inclined to the E.S.E. at 70°, the edges of which are 

 covered by a coarse red conglomerate, which in descending to the 

 low conntrj in the same direction, but at mnch lower angles, is 

 beautifully displayed on the banks of the Orron, — the river cascading 

 over beds of pebbly conglomerate and intercalated hard sandstone, 

 and the whole subsiding under the red sandstone of the Black Isle. 

 In like manner when we pass to the south side of the Beauley 

 River we find the crystalline rocks of Strath-glas similarly flanked 

 by the Old Eed conglomerate and sandstone, which, ranging from 

 W.S.W. to E.jST.E. along the south side of the Murray Frith, repose 

 on the crystalline rocks and dip to the N.N.W. 



We thus learn that the Old Red conglomerate and sandstone are 

 everjnvhere thrown off from the broken and protruding edges of the 

 older rocks, and that the direction and indication of these regene- 

 rated deposits vary with each great promontory. 



But besides these main base-hnes, there are other and minor ridges 

 of elevation, by which, whether by the rise of granite or granitic 

 gneiss, the conglomerate and bottom rock of the Old Red are exhibited. 

 Such, for example, is the uprise of the granitic and felspathic rocks, 

 with metamorphosed strata, in parts a true gneiss, at the mouth 

 of Cromarty Bay. There, however, the conglomerate is feebly ex- 

 hibited only ; but by following the same line of elevation along the 

 East Coast, other gneissose and granitic rocks (evidently meta- 

 morphic and eruptive) protrude into the altered rocks, extend to 

 Fortrose and Avoch, whence to Kessock Ferry House, opposite 

 Inverness, there is a most instructive development of the conglo- 

 merate and sandstone. Of this sandstone there are fine quarries at 

 Avoch, the beds being in highly inclined positions, dipping away 

 from the eruj)tive rocks of Craig Wood. 



Nowhere in Ross-shire is the conglomerate better displayed than 

 on the coast extending from the south of the Bay of JVIunlochy by 

 Kilmuir to Drynie, and in the cliffs between that place and Kessock 

 Ferry opposite Inverness. Whether in the headland called Craigie 

 How, in which a large natural cave is opened out upon the inclined 

 plane of the beds, or in adjacent spots where freestone is intercalated, 

 the strata are seen to dip inland, or from 50° to 70° and 80° to the W. 

 and W.N.W. Hence we see how, along this coast-line of elevation, 

 the red sandstone of Redcastle, Taradale, and other places in the 

 Black Isle where the red sandstone is quarried, is in alternation with 

 conglomerates which here and there rest upon crystalline rocks. 



The traveller who reaches Inverness from the South, and has a 

 short time only at his disposal, will indeed do well to cross the 

 Kessock Ferry, where, keeping to the sea-shore and passing by 

 Craigton to Drynie, he may examine many remarkable masses of 

 the conglomerate with irregular courses of hard, finely laminated, 

 quartzose sandstone, so made up of granitic detritus that they often 

 look like granite-veins traversing the conglomerate. The latter is 

 there compounded out of various granites (including those which 

 abound on the shores of Loch Ness), of red porphyry, and of much 

 quartz-rock, whether grey, white, or brown ; whilst fragments of 



VOL. XV. PAET I. 2 G 



