1873.] GEIKIE GLACIAL PHENOMENA OE OUTER HEBRIDES. 537 



at the north end of Loch na Muil'ne, a few yards beyond the path 

 leading to the village of Tolasdadh a Chaolais. The rock, which is 

 a somewhat close-grained dark gneiss, was smoothed and polished 

 over a space of several yards, and covered with long parallel strias and 

 grooves, which bore south-east and, north-west, or precisely in the 

 same direction as the roches moutonnees. It is unnecessary to add 

 more about the glaciation of this district ; but if any geologist should 

 think of visiting this part of Lewis, I would advise him to follow the 

 road as far as Carloway or even Delbeag. The glaciated aspect of the 

 country is wonderfully impressive, and he will not fail to remark 

 especially the fine roches moutonnees of the heights overlooking Loch 

 Carloway. 



About 2| miles to the south-east of Delbeag some bare rocky 

 hills, rising out of a sombre peaty moorland, form rather striking 

 objects. They are not much over 800 feet high ; but that height 

 in the north of Lewis makes a considerable mountain. No one who 

 examines them with any attention can doubt that they too have been 

 rubbed by ice coming from the south-east. 



Again, midway between these hills and Stornoway, rises Beinn 

 Barabhais (900 feet), the dominant point in the north of Lewis ; yet 

 even this ridge of high ground exhibits traces of glaciation in the 

 same direction. 



Soon after reaching the watershed halfway between Stornoway 

 and Gearaidh nah Aimhne the wayfarer catches his first glimpse of 

 the mountains in the south of Lewis. The view is at once striking 

 and instructive. Immediately at his feet lies a broad undulating 

 moor, dotted here and there with patches of green meadow land, 

 which only serve by contrast to render still more dreary the out- 

 lying desolation. Numberless lakes, as usual, are scattered over 

 the whole expanse of moorland, which sweeps away to the south- 

 west until it seems to end quite suddenly against the base of the 

 mountains. The view of these mountains reminded me somewhat 

 of the general appearance of the Moorfoot Hills (which, however, are 

 infinitely tamer) as seen on a clear day from the top of Arthur's Seat 

 — when they seem to rise abruptly out of the low grounds at the 

 head of the Esk like a lofty rampart. The Lewisian mountains in 

 the same way appeared to spring directly out of the moorlands, and 

 to stretch in a straight line across the whole breadth of the island. 

 When they are approached, however, it soon becomes apparent that 

 the nearer hills are by no means so lofty as they looked when viewed 

 from a distance. An approximately straight line drawn in a south- 

 east direction from Aird Thoranish opposite the Great Bernera, 

 through the district of Linshader, and so passing the heads of 

 Lochs Erisort and Seaforth to the shores of Loch Shell, marks in a 

 rough way the boundary between the low-lying moorland and bare 

 rocky tracts of the north, and the mountains of the south. The 

 moorlands adjoining this line do not average a greater height above 

 the sea than some 200 feet, while the hills immediately to the south 

 of it hardly ever rise above 800 feet or thereabouts. Now it is 

 remarkable that these hills are not glaciated from the high grounds 



