156 DR. H. HICKS OS THE METAMORPHIC AND 



to the N.W. on the one hand and along the line of the Caledonian 

 Canal on the other. Such a condition of things would seem pecu- 

 liarly anomalous if true ; but fortunately the evidence, when care- 

 fully examined, does not tend to hear out this strange interpretation, 

 and a more natural one, and one more in accordance with recent 

 views, is found to be the true one. Instead of a great synclinal with 

 the most altered rocks held up by the less altered, the interpretation, 

 as read by me, is that we have here a great, but much broken, anti- 

 clinal fold, and that these highly metamorphosed rocks formed an 

 axis which threw off the newer beds on either side, or that these rocks 

 are, if conformable with the series to the N.W. and S.E., the oldest 

 rocks and at the base of the whole succession in this area. These 

 older rocks also have been exposed by the denudation of the newer 

 rocks, and the latter are dropped on either side by faults, in more or 

 less broken synclinals. 



There is ample evidence along the rT.W. to show that the newer 

 or Ben-Fyn series are repeated in broken folds, and that they dip 

 as they approach the axis, frequently away from it. They do this 

 clearly also as seen in the section on the S.E. side ; but here the 

 N.E. and S.AV. fault has somewhat interfered with the order where 

 they actually meet. In tracing the section eastward from Glen 

 Finnan, rocks more nearly allied to the Gairloch and Ben-Fyn types 

 (no. 24) are met with. In the line of Glen Fionn, at the head of Loch 

 Eil, a granitic-looking rock is seen, not unlike that found in Glen 

 Logan (the so-called Logan rock), and its association here with these 

 old gneisses is interesting. Crossing the fault, which is a most marked 

 one at this point, we come rather suddenly on newer-looking rocks, 

 still a metamorphic series, but evidently of a newer type altogether 

 than those found in the area between Glen Fionn and Glen Finnan. 

 These are the rocks supposed by Murchison and Geikie to dip under 

 the latter ; but the evidence of a fault here is most marked, and, 

 though the beds appear to dip towards the axis, the effect is clearly 

 due to the fault. There is also some difference in the strike, as the 

 newer rocks dip decidedly to the jST.W. and afterwards to the S.E. 



Grey micaceous gneisses, corrugated mica-schists, and strongly 

 bedded quartzose gneisses are the prevailing types in this area. Near 

 Fassfern rather thick sandstone-beds are found dipping at a very low 

 angle to the S.E. These are clearly but little altered, and must, I 

 think, be classed either with the quartzite series of the west or 

 with the Torridon Sandstone. They repose upon the mica-schist 

 series, and appear to have no direct relationship with the latter. 

 They occur here in a faulted synclinal of the schistose series ; so their 

 actual position, whether as resting unconformably upon the schists 

 or dropped amongst them by faults, is not quite clear. About Kil- 

 mallie the schistose series is again very well exposed, here dipping 

 to the N.W. The rocks at this point consist of highly micaceous 

 gneisses and mica-schists (no. 25), also some talcose and serpentinous 

 schists. These are a truly metamorphic series, and cannot be differ- 

 entiated from the Ben-Fyn types, but possibly should be classed with 

 the newer portions of that series. The rock no. 26, evidently an 



