250 PROFESSOR HEDDLE ON THE MINERALOGY OF SCOTLAND. 
greenstone:”—in the district, from its toughness and untractableness, it is 
denominated “ heathen.” 
Much of the “heathen,” however, spread over the country eastward and 
southward is from the Morven range ; and that consists of true syenite. 
The rock here comes nearest to diabase in constitutents, though from its 
grey-brown colour it might not at first be recognised as such; indeed, from 
the rapidity with which the structure varies, in a small space, from large to 
small-grained, it becomes difficult, on first inspection, to believe all to be the 
same rock. 
To the west of Portsoy, immediately beyond the battery, the rock exhibits 
a coarser structure than at any other spot in the district: no ingredients 
are visible in quantity except a somewhat greasy-looking bluish-grey labra- 
dorite, and brownish-grey augite; which augite, when cut into small pieces, 
and looked at by transmitted light, is found to be purple-red, like garnet—so 
changed is the appearance of the small partcles that there is difficulty in coming 
to a belief that the substance is the same. 
Say fifty yards across the section westward of this point, a mass of aphanite 
appears, difficultly distinguishable from diorite ; two veins of greasy quartz alone 
visibly intervening, though probably several beds of limestone have been here 
washed out. At an equal distance to the east of the first-mentioned spot the 
rock has become fine grained; the augite being greener, the labradorite waxy 
and diaphanous. Passing further east, to the other side of the harbour, the 
labradorite almost disappears ; while the augite has undergone incipient decom- 
position, and its cleavage faces have assumed a pseudo-hypersthenic glimmer. 
Specimens from this spot were indeed sold by ABRAHAM CLARK, a former 
mineral dealer in the place, as “‘ Norwegian hornblende;” but true hypersthene 
is, at this locality, to be met with only in very minute crystals ;—so far as I know, 
this is the only locality in Scotland where this mineral is to be found in sétu. 
Passing still further eastward, beds of serpentine and limestone are met 
with, and immediately over the latter, on the east shore of the bay of the Ard, 
masses of the igneous rock again appear, bearing now no small resemblance to 
the peculiar variety noted at Crathie. The felspar, however, is not so markedly 
porphyritic, but its singular appearance, like half-cold suet, is strikingly similar 
to the Crathie variety; and through this, again fine-grained rock, there occurs 
a small tortuous vein of andesine, differing in appearance altogether from that 
met with elsewhere in Scotland. It has much the appearance of a massive — 
labradorite, being fine granular, passing into obscurely fibrous or plumose; a 
white colour, dirtied with a dash of grey-green; and a lustre between vitreous 
and greasy. No striation could anywhere be seen. 
The immediately associated, indeed imbedded, minerals are buff-coloured 
sphenes, and one minute crystal of Babbingtonite was also found. 

