200 HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, K.G., K.T., ON 



of each as now described. And the completeness of the explanation is in no way lessened 

 by the fact that the sides, and walls, and floor, of Glenshira are not absolutely devoid of 

 marks which have been left by the glacial conditions to which the whole country was at 

 one time exposed. Quite near the head of the glen a few mounds of transported blocks 

 do appear on the floor of the glen, and the high slopes on each side are thinly sprinkled 

 with transported. boulders — not, indeed, with such large and angular masses as encumber, 

 in immense profusion, the floor and sides of Glenaray ; but with rounded boulders 

 scattered here and there over a wide surface, — as if they had been dropped by floes, 

 perhaps gradually melting at great heights overhead, which was then the surface of the 

 glacial sea. 



When we stand on the low summit of the road which runs up Glenaray, and try to 

 imagine the scene in front of us when the great hollow of Loch Awe was a deep arm of the 

 sea, it is not difficult to understand how there must have been a tremendous scouring 

 current setting down Glenaray towards Loch ¥yne. Immediately ojDposite to us, on 

 the other side of Loch Awe, is the mountain wall of Ben Cruachan, with its subsidiary 

 ranges stretching to the N.E. and E. Westward and north-westward there is no such 

 barrier — the country is much lower, and a comparatively open sea must have existed in 

 those directions. The distant mountains of Morven and Ardnamurchan rise high over a 

 series of lower elevations, and those mountains might then have been islands, as the 

 Hebridean hills, beyond, are now. To the north-eastward, the mountainous region, 

 which so completely protects Glenshira, is traversed by a deep glen, which opens over 

 a low pass right across to the eastern side of Scotland — leading first to Loch Tay, and 

 beyond that hollow to the continuous valley of the river Tay. Along this deep glen, 

 the engineers have constructed the line of railway from Oban to Callander ; and every 

 passenger who has an eye to geology must have observed how the line cuts through 

 immense accumulations of sand and gravel, with boulder stones profusely scattered over 

 all the surfaces of the country. In trying to follow in thought the causes which would 

 operate in any submerged area, we must recollect that such conditions involve the double 

 operation of a time of sinking or submergence, and a later time of rising, or emergence. 

 During both those times, all the natural glens, which cut deeply through the country, 

 must have been the seat of powerful currents guided by the containing walls. Thus, the 

 low pass, which breaks the wall between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne, would at both epochs 

 be a line of scour, and as the emergent movement has been, of course, the latest, its 

 marks would be those with which we should expect to meet especially. Accordingly, all 

 the facts point to this solution of the appearances presented by Glenaray, which are in 

 such remarkable contrast with those of the parallel and adjacent valley of Glenshira. 



There are two other valleys, or shallower glens, in the parish of Inveraray, which 

 strongly corroborate the same conclusion as to the glaciating agency which has been at 

 work. These are both glens which run parallel to the bed of Loch Fyne, and are parts 

 of the series of parallel ridges and. hollows of which the whole mountain mass consists 

 that separates Loch Fyne from Loch Awe. Along the last and lowest of these hollows, 



