VEIK OF ASPHALTUM, 
IV. — Notice regarding a Vein of Asphaltum, or 
Slaggy Mineral Pitch, found imbedded in 
Gneiss, in the Hill of Castle Leod, near Ding- 
wall, in Ross- shire. 
By Henry With am, Esq. of Lardngtorij 
F. R. S. E. 4- M. W, S. 
Read 5th February 1825. 
Beikg desirous to visit the justly celebrated primitive 
mountains of the mid-land and northern divisions of Scot- 
land, my son and I, accompanied by Mr Somerville, lapi- 
dary, left Edinburgh on the 6th August 1824. We very 
soon found ourselves in the midst of the Grampians. It is 
here the traveller is struck with the peculiar character and 
display of the features of these primitive formations. Their 
wildness and sublimity, their conical peaks, the abrupt and 
rugged fronts of their escarpments, alternately advancing 
and retreating from the eye in every possible variety of 
form, present a scene so rude and original, that it at once 
stamps the memory with a lasting impression of the Divine 
Omnipotence. Having crossed and recrossed these pathless 
wastes in almost every direction, for the space of nearly a 
month, w^e arrived at Inverness, 
