284 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
marks the highest point. The largest of these fragments did not 
exceed 2 feet in diameter.* 
“ Again, there is a hill close to the village of Braemar, named 
Cairn-a-Drochet, reaching an elevation of 2700 feet. Seventy yards 
to the north of the cairn that marks the summit, there sits a block 
of coarse red granite 12 feet in length, while many boulders of the 
same kind are scattered all around. Now the upper part of this 
hill is chiefly composed of quartzose gneiss , intersected with dykes 
and masses of felspar porphyry, and although granite also occurs 
in situ a short way down the hill, yet it is of a different quality 
from this block, containing a much smaller proportion of quartz, 
while the felspar is of a paler tint, and, upon the whole, I think it 
likely that this block and many of the other boulders near it have 
been derived from the mountains to the north, the granite of which 
is identical in character. Whilst not meaning to press this too 
strongly, I would remark that the fragments of quartz, felspar, 
porphyry, and granite on the flat top of the hill are mingled in 
such a way as to indicate exposure to some shifting agency, as if 
they had been washed about together while under water. 
“The only other instance of high-lying fragments, apparently 
transported from a distance, that I shall adduce, relates to the 
mountain called Ben Uarn More (3587 feet). It forms the 
culminating peak of the great ridge that divides the shires of 
Aberdeen and Perth, and is composed of quartz rock ; no other 
rock occurred, as I clambered up the steep northern slope, but I 
observed here and there, as I went along, fragments of a peculiar 
kind of porphyry that I had not met with in situ lower down. 
These fragments continued to occur, though sparingly, high up on 
the shoulder of the mountain, but on the very top I looked some 
* The Convener having sent to Mr Jamieson a proof of this part of the Re- 
port for his revisal, he returned it, with the following note : — “The Rev. J. G. 
Michie of Dinnet, accompanied by the Rev. Mr Davidson of Logie-Coldstone, 
paid a visit to Morven on the 12tli October 1874, in order to make a special 
examination as to the occurrence of these boulders. Mr Michie wrote to me, 
that they saw some large blocks of granite at the base of the mountain, and small 
boulders of granite were likewise found sparingly all over the top of the hill, 
up to the very summit ; but there was a considerable space about half way up, 
where there seemed to be an absence of these boulders. No granite rock was 
found in situ on Morven itself ; the rock, so far as could be seen, being of the 
nature of hornblende schist.” 
