1873.] BEYCE — JURASSIC ROCKS OF SKYE AND EAASAY. 319 



of Glen Sligachan, and appear no more to the southward. On the 

 western side of the loch, however, Jurassic beds emerge, at a low 

 level, from under the sea-line, rising towards the north-east, and 

 dipping westerly at 10° to 15°. They form but a narrow band, and 

 are covered by the ordinary trap rock of the country, which forms 

 the long and lofty ridge bounding Loch Sligachan on the west. 

 The loch in fact seems to be in a line of fault, which has brought up 

 the beds from the sea-level on the north-west to a height of about 

 500 feet on the south-east ; and the loch thus seems to have 

 been eroded upon these Secondary strata. The Oolitic beds con- 

 tinue their course along the grassy plateau on which the Clachan 

 of Balmeanach is situated, until they are lost under the basaltic 

 cliff which begins to occupy the sea-line opposite the west end of the 

 small peninsula of Ardvornish ; seaward they are cut off by a band 

 of whitish-grey felsite (felspar porphyry), which forms the peninsula, 

 appears again at the landing-place in liaasay, and figures so largely 

 in the geology of that island. I was unable to determine whether 

 this disappearance is due to a fault or one of the many undulations 

 to be seen on this coast (see PI. XL fig. 5). 



The low basaltic cliff now occupies the coast-line for two or three 

 miles, till we reach within a quarter of a mile of the small fishing- 

 harbour of Camus-Inivaig, where a small patch of the sandstone 

 again shows itself, to be again depressed till we pass the harbour 

 and the shore begins to trend eastward. Here the strata emerge 

 from the sea-line in beds successively lower as we advance east, 

 north-east, and north along the shore, and, rising rapidly northwards, 

 attain under the highest part of the basaltic fagades of Inivaig a 

 thickness of about 800 feet. -Here the beds attain a great develop- 

 ment, the lowest fossiliferous stratum in this northern area now 

 rising high in the cliffs. Round both sides of Portree harbour the 

 beds are again depressed below sea-level, or wholly cut off by the 

 overlying trap, continuous from this point along the back of the cliffs 

 as far as Camus-Inivaig. On the north-east side of the harbour the 

 beds again rise from under the basaltic sheets of the plateau, and 

 exhibit their inclined edges along the hill-side for a short distance, 

 are again cut off by the advance of the trap rock, and then rise 

 again to attain an even greater development than in the southern 

 precipices, especially as regards the upper beds, in the steep, almost 

 impassable, grassy slopes under the vast basaltic facades of Tor- 

 vaig, 1280 feet high. At the back of these precipices there is a 

 considerable area denuded of the basaltic cover, in which the upper 

 beds are exposed around the two small lakes, Pada and Lea-than 

 (long and broad lakes), and in the gullies which descend towards them 

 from the eastern ridge (see Map and Sections, PI. XL). Thence the 

 strata sweep round by the great waterfall and unite with the beds 

 upon the shore, to the north of the Holm Island. Hence the trap 

 rock which forms the grand precipices of the Storr, descending by 

 successive terraced slopes, comes close upon the shore, leaving but a 

 narrow band of the calcareous beds, which front the sea in low cliffs 

 hence till the headland of Itu-na-Bhrarin is approached. Here trap 



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