204 
GEOGNOSTICAL SKETCH OF THE 
Ness and Oich ; and a similar bed of gravel, except where 
interrupted by Loch Lochy, can be traced to the opposite 
shore at Corpach, near Fort William. These alluvial de- 
posits have always supplied abundance of materials, and a 
compact bed for the line of the Canal, while the absence of 
large masses of fixed rock contributed to render the work 
more expeditious. Another alluvial flat, free from large 
rocks, though otherwise rather loose in texture, occurs at 
the lower extremity of Loch Ness, between it and the sea, 
thus completing the track of this great CanaL All these 
alluvial beds are similarly constituted ; and hence, by de- 
scribing those in the immediate vicinity of Loch Ness, we 
may form a very good idea of the whole. 
Between the Murray Frith and Loch Ness, these depo- 
sits arrange themselves into three flats or banks. The first 
and lowest, is the one through which the river Ness and 
the Canal run, and on which the greater part of the town 
of Inverness is built. Removed a little way back, but ris- 
ing above this to the height of 50 or 60 feet, and occupy- 
ing the space between the south bank of the river and the 
ridge of the Leys formerly described, appears the second 
flat, or table-ground. And, lastly, on the opposite side of 
the Ness, proceed, from the confines of Dochfour, a series 
of low, waving, and steep hillocks (not surpassing 200 feet 
in height), which terminate, after a run of six miles, with 
the celebrated Phorvaine, and Pomnahurich, or the Fairies' 
Hill. This last set of hills are inclined to the sandstone 
range bounding this northern side of the Valley, at an 
angle of from 30° to 40°. 
Agreeable to this account, a person proceeding from the 
river towards the south, would first pass over the lower flat, 
which appears in the form of a beautiful strath, of from 
one to two miles in breadth ; and then, after ascending a 
steep bank (of 40 or 60 feet in height), he would come 
