8 



A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE MORAY BASIN. 



Liberty. South of it rises A Mhaighdean, the height of which is 

 rather uncertain, the Ordnance Survey giving it only the 2750 feet 

 contour (which might mean anything up to 3000), but as in this 

 part of Scotland the contouring is excessively careless (notably in 

 the case of the southern buttress of Teallach, Sail Liath), that is 

 not much to go upon. I have on two occasions made it 3150 with 

 my aneroid, which does not usually err much from the other heights 

 given by the Survey ; and Dr. Heddle, of St. Andrews, makes it 

 much about the same, so I am disposed to believe it to be nearly 

 correct. This is important, as it is probably the highest point 

 reached by the Hebridean gneiss in Scotland. It is a fine mountain, 

 with precipices both on the north and south sides. The latter pre- 

 cipice is by far the most magnificent, being cut down from the 

 summit for nearly 1000 feet almost perpendicularly and continuing 

 for another 1000 feet, by a very precipitous craggy slope, to the 

 valley. The western ridge is very curious, being formed of the 

 remains of the Torridon sandstone, which has all been denuded 

 away with the exception of this ridge, which cannot be much over 

 100 feet thick. It is cut into detached pinnacles, which look like 

 piles of biscuits. Beinn a' Chaisgein Mor (2802 feet) is a large 

 tabular mountain to the north-west of A Mhaighdean, with two 

 buttresses to the south — Sgurr na Fearsaide and Sgurr na Laocain 

 — the latter a great pile of precipices 2000 feet high. 



Immediately to the south of these rises the long rugged ridge 

 of Beinn Tarsuinn Chaol, terminated on the north by the magnifi- 

 cent cliff of Creag an Dhubh Loch, which descends in a hard, firm 

 wall, about 1000 feet high, into the waters of the Dhubh 

 Loch. 



East of this rises Beinn Tarsuinn, a long, thin-ridged moun- 

 tain of Torridon sandstone, on the north shore of Lochan Fada. 

 South of this loch, and between it and Loch Maree, is the famous 

 Slioch (3217 feet), too well known to need any description. 



Divided from it by a very deep and narrow valley, Glen Bian- 

 asdail, rises the precipitous-faced Beinn a Mhuinidh (2231 feet). 

 ]^orth-west of Slioch a chain of hills runs parallel with Loch 

 Maree. First comes Beinn Lair (2817 feet), which towards Maree 

 presents long irregular slopes, and has an extended line of preci- 



