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The Geognosy and Mineralogy of Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Extract

The granite of the Ord forms one, and that probably the smallest of a number of masses which constitute the border-land between Caithness and Sutherland. The features of this granite vary considerably at different points. It will, however, be afterwards shown that the rock is possibly continuous from north to south,--that is, from Sandsidc Bay, on the Pentland Firth, to Navidale, near Helmsdale.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1883

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References

page note page note 218* "The result of an examination of their connections is that the formation of both rocks is similar, and that they are to be considered merely as modifications of each ther."

page 229 note * Foot note, page 178.

page 239 note * I have not examined the west shore.

page 241 note * Trans. Geol. Soc. 2nd Ser. Vol. III.

page 241 note † Trans. High. Soc. Vol. VII.

page 241 note ‡ Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. XXVIII.

page 241 note * Quar. Jour, Geol. Soc. Vol XV.

page 241 note † Trans. Higk. Soc. Vol VII.

page 242 note * Trans. Roy. Soc Edin., Vol. XXXIII.

page 242 note † "Gee" is a local word in the Northern Counties for a small creek or rent in a rocky coast.

page 243 note * These Beinn Ratha beds, which are hanging on to the side of the hill like a fringe, prove.that there was here no passage of ice from the E., S.E., or S.

page 247 note * All that has been written above as to the mode of formation of the syenite of reay is submitted by the writer as nothing more than a Consideration of the subject, --a suggestion of a possible mode of formation. he is not to be eonsidered as "maintaining it," or "believing it," or anything of the kind. the dogmatism of many geologic writers,--the dogmatism of all scientific theoriatsj--is to him im utter abomination. did we, with regard to points which are Subjects for inference and nothing more, less often read such expressions as "this is," and "this was," we might has been spared the following cruel lashing from one of the most earnest and most conscientious workers whom this country has known,--" i am not sure, not exactly sure, whether the deductions of scientific men are always such as to merit the approbation of heaven. of all geologic reasoning one soon gets tired. there is nothing on which the mind of the reader can lay hold, and rest. ' what is truth?' is an old question; but no man in his senses would seek for it in the books of geologists."

page 248 note * Loc. cit.

page 253 note * But, if the dauntless Dick,--the man who could walk sixty miles a day, or rather a night,---who had his home in the country,--would not undertake it, there could not he much likelihood that one of those "gentleman geologists" for whom he entertained so great a contempt could accomplish it in a short visit. It is all very well for Dick tauntingly to excite to the work by writing "Try it, gentlemen geologists! Try it! Away through the moors; and again through the moors," when of these moors he gives us the following as his experiences,--" In the name of all that is truly miserable nothing can be conceived more dreary than those wide stretching heaths: nor bird nor insect is there, even the hardy club.moss has acquired a yellow hue; all is lonely and melancholy. The whole breadth of the country lies before with mires and moors unutterable. To linger might be fatal should darkness overtake. ' On, on,' is the watchword! On and on through marsh and mire, ankledeep, and deeper! Hop, step, and jump is holiday diversion compared to passing over theee rude hummocks. One's frame trembles with the concussion. Try it on the hummocks I Try to pick your way by wading through the pools of water. Try to get round and between them. It is all the same. You sigh in hopeless agony. You get bemired to the knees, and long for a clear pool of water where you may have a satisfactory wáshing."

It might have been better service of Dick had he left some more precise jottings of his own observations on these outbursts of granite.