10 A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



mass. Over Loch Maree is Meall a Ghuibhais (2882 feet) ; its 

 base is beautifully fringed with old fir-wood. 



To the south-west of Beinn Eighe is the extraordinary moun- 

 tain, Liathaich (3456 feet). It is a long, narrow mountain, with 

 two tops some distance apart, both capped with quartzite, and 

 connected by a narrow ridge, called the Fasarinen, its north- 

 western face cut into a series of deep corries divided by wild, 

 rocky buttresses, while the south-eastern face is wild, rocky, and 

 precipitous. One buttress especially, just below the highest peak, 

 terminates in a precipitous slope nearly 3000 feet high. 



On the north side of Loch Torridon rises Ben Alligin (3232 

 feet). It has several well-marked summits facing round the great 

 corrie, Toll a Mhadaidh. I^earest the loch is Spidean Coir' an 

 Laoigh (3022 feet) — with a deep corrie of the same name high up 

 on its shoulders, — terraced in form. It gets steeper as it descends, 

 till it ends in a final drop of 600 feet. There are several tracks on 

 the face of the cliff through which the deer-stalkers make their 

 way, a decidedly heady performance. Sgurr Mhor (3232 feet) is 

 the highest. It is deeply gashed by an extraordinary split, about 

 50 feet below the top, called Eag-na-h-Each, and somewhat 

 resembles the Devil's Kitchen in Wales. It is formed by the 

 eating away of a softer bed of rock, leaving two perpendicular 

 walls, one of which, on the north side, is about 600 feet deep. 

 When looking down the gash, the depth is apparently much 

 greater, as the cliffs stretch down in perspective almost to the 

 bottom of the corrie, a depth of nearly 2000 feet. The ridge is 

 finely terminated by three pyramidal peaks, called the Eathains 

 (the highest 2840 feet), which are precipitous on the north-west 

 side. Sgurr Mhor is unusually smooth and green towards the 

 west. The floor of Toll a Mhadaidh is almost entirely occupied by 

 an enormous debacle of stones, which must have fallen from the 

 cliffs. As far as I know, this is the largest thing of the sort in 

 Scotland. Other mountains of this district deserving notice are 

 Beinn Dearg (2994 feet); Bus-bheinn (2869 feet), a picturesque, 

 ridged mountain, with several strongly-marked summits seen from 

 Gairloch ; and Beinn an Eoin (2801 feet). 



South of Torridon are the Loch Carron and Applecross moun- 



