the Primarij Rocks and the Oolitic Series in the North of Scotland. 139 



manner befoje stated*. Another part of it ranges from the serrated rido-e 

 of the Maiden Paps, on the other side of the Scarabins, and descends to the 

 coasts being- bounded towards the south by the granitic chain which termi- 

 nates in the bluff headland of the Ord. It, therefore, remains for us only 

 to describe the coast section from Berridale to the Ord, in order to com- 

 plete the history of this system. We have before stated that the lower part 

 of the Caithness schist extends considerably to the south of the Berridale 

 river ; and it may, perhaps, be considered to terminate a little beyond the 

 detached pinnacle called "The Man of the Ord." In this part of the ranoe, 

 the strata are of an unusually red colour, and contain few subordinate calca- 

 reous beds. In other respects they are perfectly analogous in structure to the 

 corresponding parts of the formation. These red micaceous flagstones are 

 succeeded towards the south (in regular descending order) by some beds re- 

 sembling indurated shale of a deep red colour; and these indurated shales 

 repose upon a great succession of still lower beds, which are entirely composed 

 of red sandstone, and rise into a perpendicular cliff, three or four hundred feet 

 high, called Trefad. The upper part of this system of strata is somewhat thin- 

 bedded, like the Caithness flagstone, but is of a more uniformly red colour, 

 and of a coarser texture. The lower part passes here and there into a coarse, 

 red sandstone ; and near the base some of the beds contain a great deal of 

 kaolin, and are nearly incoherent. We also remarked near the same part of 

 the series, many thin beds of conglomerate alternating with the red sandstone. 

 From beneath this whole series, which dips towards the east, rises an enormous 

 mass of conglomerate, occupying, for about half a mile, a lofty but singularly 

 ruinous clifi^, under a village called Bad-na-Bae. It is almost exclusively com- 

 posed of fragments of granite, for which rock it might, without examination, 

 be easily mistaken ; as, in its colour, mode of weathering, and its rude pris- 

 matic forms, derived from decomposition, it strikingly resembles a crystalline 

 granitoid mass. We succeeded, however, in landing among these ruins, and 

 we effected a passage through them, though not without difticulty, to the top 

 of the cliff: and when examined in situ and under the blows of a hammer, 

 their true nature is easily made manifestf . These conglomerates pass into 

 the interior in the manner before pointed out, and rise into the iiilis which 

 flank and surmount the north side of the chain connected with the Ord. 

 At Ach-na-Craig the cliff again changes its character, and is occupied by 



* See Section, Plate XIV. fig. 2. 



t We conceive that the fragments of granite which enter so largely into the composition of 

 this conglomerate, are derived from a mass which lies buried under the mounds of the frag, 

 mentary rock. 



