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MR. J. S. GARDNER OX THE LEAF-BEDS 



appear until an elevation of nearly 1000 feet is reached, and then 

 only in thin beds. A little to the north a thin seam of coal with 

 some sand crops out at 250 feet above sea-level, which latter about 

 corresponds with the base of the Traps at this point. The Wilderness 

 commences somewhere here, and within 200 or 300 yards is a singular 

 outcrop of chalk rubble or remanie chalk and flint, at an elevation of 

 100 feet above the shore. The larger mass measures 19 feet 5 inches 

 across, and is 12 feet 9 inches high ; and the smaller one, a little to 

 one side and slightly below the other, is 1 7 feet 8 inches along the 

 base, and 8 feet 9 inches high. They are chiefly composed of 

 nearly white, broken -up flints, in a matrix of chalk, but disposed as 

 in pudding-stone, without the least trace of bedding. There is 

 nothing visible under this except iron-stained rubble and basalt 

 talus. I have seen no other chalk on this part of the coast, and 

 this is certainly not in situ, but as much a redeposited mass as the 

 flint gravel of Carsaig. A little to the north of this we find the base 

 of a cherty greensand in situ, but its thickness is not ascertainable. 

 Immediately beneath this is Lias, 16 feet thick, formed of alter- 

 nating clay and limestone bands, the latter with Lima and Pecten. 

 Mr. Etheridge agrees with me in considering that this is a repre- 

 sentative of the Lower Lias. Under this, again, is a bed of sand- 

 stone with green grains, which the bedding shows to be of marine 

 origin, though it is unfossiliferous. Only a thickness of 15 feet is 

 visible on the shore. Everything is unfortunately obscured by talus 

 for a little distance westward, but the sands soon reappear with 

 pebbles in them, forming a conglomerate precisely similar to that of 

 Gribun, except that the materials are finer and more scattered. 



This is interesting as showing that not only the red conglomerates 

 of Gribun and Inch Kenneth, invisible here, but also the similar 

 conglomerate with green grains above them, are of pre-Liassic age. 

 This interpretation, which is the more natural one, deprives Inch 

 Kenneth of any trace of Cretaceous deposits. Returning to the 

 Wilderness, the gneiss now rises above the sea-level at a high angle, 

 and gradually becomes higher and higher, until it exceeds 200 feet 

 at Coireachan Gorma, where it forms the entire undercliff. The 

 remainder of the section as far as Gribun I have only examined 

 from a boat ; but at the latter locality there is, as observed by Judd, 

 unmistakable Upper Greensand over the Poikilitic conglomerate and 

 marl, but, so far as I could discover, still no trace of Chalk. The 

 Isle of Erisgeir, rather over two miles from the shore, is of gneiss ; 

 and Inch Kenneth is of gneiss and Poikilitic conglomerate. 



Finding the Ardtun river-deposits so feebly represented on the 

 opposite shore of Torosay, less than 2 miles to the N.E., and the 

 presence of an elevated tract of Palaeozoic and Secondary rocks there, 

 I examined the traps running almost due east and west, along a 

 line 12 or 13 miles long, embracing the north shore of Loch na Kael, 

 and the Isles of Eorsa, Ulva, and Gometra. The Traps on the further 

 side of the tract or ridge of Palaeozoic rocks alluded to would appear 

 to be the result of distinct flows, as on that side we find the lower 

 levels occupied by rudely columnar and amygdaloidal basalts, instead 



