330 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 26, 



character and less persistent are interstratified ; and perhaps no two 

 observers would make the same exact division of the beds. There is, 

 indeed, great difficulty in obtaining a true vertical succession ; where 

 the shore is passable there is a vast talus of fallen blocks, and faults 

 and slips occur throughout ; where the precipices rise sheer up out of 

 the water, or with a narrow margin at tbeir base, the telescope has to 

 be appealed to, or one must judge what the beds aloft are by the debris 

 of the margin. The section given by Prof. E. Forbes (Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vii. 106, 1851) is not in exact harmony with ours; but there 

 is a general agreement : one exception is remarkable, the non-in- 

 sertion of the Ostrea-hebridica bed, which is a striking feature of 

 these cliffs, and, as above stated, is a mass of shells wherever it shows 

 itself. 



A section approximately the Same as the above was obtained by 

 standing on a projecting point of the cliffs near the waterfall, and 

 looking back from g to | of a mile westwards, towards the Kilt or 

 Kelt rock, famous along this coast for its curiously banded struc- 

 ture {order descending) : — 



Section VIII. , the Kelt Rock. 



1. The overlying columnar trap, 60 to 70 ft. 



2. Indurated dark shaly beds. 



3. Grey limestone and sandstone. 



4. Dark shale with strong bands, Ostrea-hebridica bed. 



5. Whitish-yellow sandstone, with nodules. 



6. Shaly calcareous courses ; Cyrena ? 



7. The underlying doleritic sheet. 



The contrasted bands of rock in the lofty cliffs, the isolated basaltic 

 pillars detached from the cliff behind by disintegration of the trap or 

 subsidence of the secondary beds, the great faults (which change in a 

 few feet the whole aspect of a precipice) render the coast-scenery very 

 grand and interesting, though difficult to interpret. In many places 

 the only way of reading the cliff-sections is by looking down upon 

 them greatly foreshortened from the summit of an adjoining cliff. 

 East of the Kelt rock there are several faults, the greatest of which 

 seems to be that on which is the Loch-Me-alt waterfall, by which the 

 secondary beds are cut off, and the overlying trap is brought down 40 

 or 50 ft. towards the east, so as to pass under the sea-line. In another 

 fault a little to the west of this, the beds are seen 30 or 40 ft. higher 

 on the east than on the west side. A little east of the waterfall 

 the trap becomes completely denuded from the cliffs, and the highest 

 of the secondary beds spread out over the fields and knolls to some 

 distance inland, till the ground again rises and the basaltic cover- 

 ing comes on. The fossiliferous beds are seen in many places in the 

 open fields, and in river-courses towards Ru-na-Bhrarin. The sketch 

 PI. XI. fig. 6 shows the manner in which this change takes place 

 about half-a-mile to the eastward of Lake Me-alt. West of the lake 

 the ground rises considerably, and the overlying trap is everywhere 

 seen upon it continuous with that which forms the front of the 

 highest cliffs of this coast, immediately west of the Kelt rock. 



