252 ON THE TRAVELLED STONE 



tunity of visiting the spot ; and now, without tres- 

 passing on your patience by an enumeration of the 

 various sources of procrastination which have produ- 

 ced so considerable a delay between the period of 

 my investigation, and my present communication, 

 I shall proceed to offer you the result of my inqui- 

 ries and remarks made on the spot. 



This stone is a large mass of conglomerate, being 

 a concretion composed of distinct irregular fragments 

 of granite, gneiss, quartz, and other rocks of the pri- 

 mitive series, cemented together by a highly indura- 

 ted and ferruginous claystone. It is, apparently the 

 very same conglomerate, as that forming the rocks 

 through which the romantic burn of Cawdor cuts 

 its deep and narrow bed, near Cawdor Castle in 

 Nairnshire ; nor am I aware, that any rock of the 

 same nature with that of the Travelled Stone, ex- 

 ists much nearer to it than seven or eight miles. Its 

 present situation is on the sands, in the little bay 

 near Castle-Stuart, on the Moray Firth ; and as 

 it is left entirely dry by every retreating tide, 

 the sea retiring a great way beyond it, it is 

 easily approached over the sands at low-water. Its 

 size is very considerable ; being, as near as I could 

 guess, above five feet high at its most elevated point, 

 calculating from the surface of the sand, and being, 

 to all appearance, about one foot imbedded in it. In 

 its two horizontal diameters, it may probably mea- 

 sure between five and six feet one way, by six or 

 seven the other. Its shape, which is very particular, 



