458 Dr. Mac Culloch o;/ Ouart% Rock. 



Assynt. 



Although I have to regret the limited extent of my observations 

 on this district, yet as they tend to illustrate the nature of the rock 

 which forms the subject of this notice, I am unwilling to suppress 

 them. They may at least serve, in conjunction with the remarks 

 which I have made on this rock in other places, to extend its history 

 and connexions, as. well as to stimulate future observers possessed of 

 better opportunities, to continue this inquiry, and to assist in 

 determining the composition of that extensive and as yet little 

 known country which constitutes the northern mountainous division 

 of Scotland. 



The mountains which form the districts of Coygach and Assynt 

 may be distinguished even from the island of Sky, by their peculiarly 

 smooth and conical outlines, and by the whiteness of their summits, 

 so dazzling in the sunshine, that to a spectator unaware of their 

 composition, they appear as if for ever retaining the snows of winter. 

 Their strong resemblance to the Paps of Jura, both in the even 

 unbroken line which forms their summits, and in the peculiarity of 

 their colour, immediately however, explains their composition and 

 confirms their similarity ; for, like those mountains, they are formed 

 of a rock which has here also been called " granular and primitive 

 quartz." In a distant view they are remarkable too for another 

 peculiarity, which in other situations has been supposed characteristic 

 of the mountains of this class, and that is, their detached position. 

 The accompanying sketch of the coast, PI. 32. fig. 2. will better ex- 

 plain than words can, both the singularity of their form and that 

 independence of position which they assume ; circumstances which 

 when compared with the irregular outlines and crowded groups of 

 o;ranitic and schistose hills, will strike the most careless observer. The 



