in Scotland and Parts of England. 251 



happens to be from WSW. It may also be remarked that, 

 on some other parts of the mountain, of no great elevation, 

 there are down-hill streakings without any of those from the 

 north-west. Such is likewise the case on the back of Coul 

 More. 



On the gneissic platform, between Coul More and Suilvean 

 I found polished surfaces, striated from NW. to W. ; and 

 to the west and north of the latter mountain are markings in 

 all respects similar. Such is the line of the major axis of 

 Suilvean itself, and of many ridges and hollows of the gneiss, 

 as may be partly observed from the Map ; for such is the di- 

 rection of many lakes which repose in these hollows, and 

 which are laid clown in maps. These are situations where 

 no local glaciers could exist. They only could be marked by 

 some glaciation more general than any we now see in opera- 

 tion. 



At a particular stage in the investigation of this district, I 

 thought that, there being proofs of so extensive a denudation 

 in Assynt, by an abrading agent coming from the north-west, 

 we ought to find extensive deposits of the detritus of the dis- 

 trict in regions situated to the eastward. I therefore made 

 an extensive detour, in order to pass along the valley con- 

 taining Loch Shin, and looked carefully there for fragments 

 of quartz and old red sandstone. Not a fragment was to be 

 found. The mystery was, however, soon cleared up ; for it 

 became evident, from both striated surfaces and moraines, 

 that this valley had been, like that of Loch Assynt and Glen 

 Coul, the seat of a comparatively late local glacier, which 

 necessarily had swept out every particle of earlier detritus. 



It must now be observed, that the proofs of such a general 

 extension and so deep a volume of mobile ice, are not con- 

 fined to this district. Streaking, precisely the same as that 

 of Cuineag and Canisp, exists at an elevation of at least 2000 

 feet, on the similar quartz mountain named Ben-Eay, south 

 of Loch Maree, and forty miles from Assynt, — this striation 

 being from NW., or thereabouts, and totally irrespective of 

 the form of the hill. On free ground, between Gairloch and 

 Poole we, there is similar marking, with a direction from 

 WNW. So also is there in the great elevated valley of 



