IN CAITHNESS. 



223 



On walking up the course of the burn, a bed of 

 syenite was observed rising from under the lime- 

 stone ; and, in the limestone, were numerous por- 

 tions of the syenite, varying from the size of a 

 fist to several feet ; in diameter. The syenite con- 

 tains much hornblende, with flesh-red felspar, small 

 scales of mica, and grains of grey quartz. The 

 limestone resting on it, and intermixed with it, is 

 fetid, and contains small disseminated grains of 

 iron-pyrites. Farther up the burn, the syenite, in 

 several places, assumes the conglomerated charac- 

 ter. There are two varieties of this conglomerate : 

 in the one, the ovoidal and roundish masses are con- 

 nected together by a basis of smaller granular syenite; 

 in the other, they are immediately joined together, 

 without any basis or ground. Another variety of 

 syenite-conglomerate was observed a little distance 

 from those just described, in which the apparent 

 fragments were of syenite, and of a coarse sandstone, 

 of the same variety as that which occurs in strata In- 

 termixed with, and passing into these conglomerates, 

 there is a fourth variety, in which both the roundish 

 and ovoidal masses, and the basis or ground in 

 which they are imbedded, are of red granite. These 

 four kinds of conglomerate, do not form separate 

 and distinct beds. On the contrary, they appear 

 to be mutually imbedded in each other, in masses 

 of greater or less extent ; and all of them are includ- 

 ed in a general and greater mass or bed of compact 

 syenite, which is either of a red or grey colour. 



