OLD RED SANDSTONE OF WESTERN EUROPE. 381 
must once have spread westward, with nearly the same characters, for at least 
thirty-five miles, since it occurs in detached outliers as far as the Kyle of 
Tongue, where it passes under the Atlantic. The accompanying section (fig. 1) 
explains the structure of the ground between Braemore and Morven, and shows 
Braemore. Maiden Pap. Smian, Morven. 








Fig. 1.—Section through the bottom beds of the Old Red Sandstone at Morven and Braemore, Caithness. 
a, Schists, Quartzites, &c.; b, Bottom Conglomerate; c, Sandstones, Shales, and Conglomerates ; 
d, Conglomerate. 
the great denudation which the rocks have there undergone. Morven, the highest 
and most conspicuous hill in Caithness, reaching a height of 2313 feet above the 
sea, is an enormous outlier of gently inclined sandstones and conglomerates, of 
which the truncated edges, seen all round the flanks of the mountain, look 
over the wide plain of Caithness and the undulating uplands of Sutherland- 
shire.* The lower two-thirds or thereabouts of the mountain consist of well- 
bedded coarse reddish-grey pebbly sandstone, often passing into brecciated 
conglomerate, and sometimes with intercalated courses of dull red shale. The 
upper portion is a coarse brecciated conglomerate, in massive irregular beds, 
much jointed, and standing out in broken crags. The paste of this rock 
abounds in the same pink orthoclase already noticed, while fragments of the same 
mineral are specially conspicuous among the pebbles. Other included fragments 
consist of quartz-rock, pink granite, pink porphyry, vein-quartz, gneiss, schist, 
and a duli-red sandstone. They vary in size up to five or six inches in length. 
Though sometimes tolerably well rounded, they are mostly subangular, in some 
cases sharply angular. I did not observe the coarse basement conglomerate at the 
foot of Morven, though immediately to the west of the mountain the snowy-white 
quartz-rock appears in a remarkably flowing ice-worn ridge. Smean resembles 
Morven in structure, but is less lofty and conical in form, though its otherwise 
tame outline is relieved by the splintered crags of conglomerate along its crest, 
especially when seen from the east. The Braemore sandstones and shales are 
exposed along its flanks, whence they sweep eastward ‘in a broad smooth ridge, 
which slopes down into Braemore. On the highest part of this ridge stands the 
* Some remarkably steep angles of repose for the detritus of the mountain are to be seen on the 
south and east slopes, the angle seldom falling below 27° and rising sometimes to 35°, as measured by 
my colleague, Mr Jonn Horne, who accompanied me in the ascent. The north and west sides are 
precipitous. 
VOL, XXVIIL PART IL 5G 
