OF THE GRAMPIANS. 455 



ries are the most predominant. These materials 

 are strongly conglomerated by a highly ferrugi- 

 nated clay, of a reddish- brown colour, mixed with 

 very small particles of quartz, and very minute 

 fragments of silver-coloured mica. The quantity 

 of this cement is not so great as to entitle it to as- 

 sume the character of a base or principal mass in 

 the composition ; it only fills up the interstices 

 among the rounded materials. 



The binding quality of this cement is of a very 

 powerful nature ; the hardest stones in the compo- 

 sition may in general be more easily broken than 

 removed from their sockets. In this conglome- 

 rate, narrow lines, and thin beds of a fine-grained 

 sandstone, frequently occur at various distances. 

 They are from the third of an inch to some feet in 

 thickness. These are stratified, and generally 

 consist of many wafer-like layers : they are in no 

 degree bent in their course, nor indented by the 

 materials forming the Conglomerate : they uni- 

 formly stretch in the direction of the conglome- 

 rate, and divide its mass into separate beds or lay- 

 ers. These lines of sandstone strongly indicate, 

 that this mass has been deposited at various pe- 

 riods ; and they at the same time serve to point out 

 its real stretch and its position ; and we learn from 

 these, that its direction at Stonehaven is nearly 

 from north-west to south-east ; and in its posi- 

 tion it is here very nearly vertical, having only a 

 small degree of dip towards the south-west, 



Ff 4 



