154 Rev. A. Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison on Deposits contained between 



of the formation we are describing-. The beds which we observed between 

 the shore of Loch Kishorn and the top of the mountain were nearly in the 

 following order, beginning- with the lowest visible. 



1 . Very hard, thick beds of red sandstone, chiefly composed of fragments of quartz and felspar ; 

 in some instances of very coarse texture. 



2. Beds similar to the preceding, associated with others containing decomposing felspar. 



3. Hard, close-grained, siliceous beds, containing many fragments of green, indurated, slate- 

 clay. 



4. Many thick beds, very hard, close-grained, and variegated with red and yellowish blotches. 



5. Beds thinner and more fissile, variegated with red and yellowish stripes. 



6. Fissile or flaggy beds, with flakes of mica between the laminae. 



7. Thin beds separated by bands of greenish marl, and alternating with sandy micaceous slate- 

 clay. 



8. At the top of the mountain, thin beds externally of a red and yellowish red colour, and, in 

 their mode of weathering, resembling the commonest varieties of old or new red sandstone*. 



This outline of a more detailed section may serve to convey a general 

 notion of the red sandstone of Applecross ; and we have little hesitation in 

 identifying- it with the older part of the conglomerate series of Caithness and 

 the Murray Firth. The same observation may, we think, be applied to all the 

 larger masses of red sandstone on the north-western coast. They are not 

 only formed by the degradation of the primary strata of gneiss, quartz rock, 

 &c. &c., but they are unconformable to them, and are generally separated 

 from them, by masses of conglomerate. 



For a proof of the general want of conformity of the red sandstone series 

 to the true primary rocks, we may refer to numerous passages in the excellent 

 description of tiiis coast by Dr. MacCulloch, especially to his delineations of 

 the mountains of red sandstone in the neighbourhood of Assynt. The same 

 fact is beautifully exhibited at the junction of the red sandstone and conglo- 

 merate with the gneiss, in a deep gulley two or three miles to the south of 

 Cape Wrath. The lamina of the gneiss are nearly vertical, while the beds 

 of the secondary rock are not inclined at a greater angle than 23°, and dip 

 (W.N.W.) from the coast into the sea. The same observation may be 

 applied to a magnificent succession of cliifs which range towards Loch 

 Inchard. 



We found many traces of the old conglomerates which separate the secon- 

 dary deposits from the primary rocks on the hills between Loch Ewe and 

 Loch Groignard ; and we discovered two instructive junctions of the red 

 sandstone with the primary schistose rocks between Loch Ewe and Gairloch. 



* The assertion that no mica is contained in the red sandstone of the north-west coast, is 

 shown by this section to be erroneous. 



