VII. FLOWERING PLANTS OF GAIRLOCH…

VII. FLOWERING PLANTS OF GAIRLOCH

It is matter of regret that no adequate herbarium has been prepared for Gairloch. With the aid of Lady Mackenzie of Gairloch, Mrs Fowler of Inverbroom, Mr O. H. Mackenzie, Mr A. Davidson, and other helpers, a list has been compiled, and is appended to these notes. It is imperfect, but we hope that it may lead to a more accurate and complete account of the flora of the parish.

Visitors to Gairloch are invited to add to our list, and any botanical information they may be willing to impart will be received with thanks. But they are appealed to to abstain (when searching for plants) from anything like a trespass or an infringement of the privileges of others. Thoughtlessness on the part of a few, may bring discredit on botanists generally.

Searchers for wildflowers are further entreated, not to eradicate any plant that may be found,--nay, not even to greatly reduce its dimensions; remembering that others ought to be allowed the chance of observing it, and that it is unfair to rob a country of its charms. Two instances are given in our "Introduction" of the destruction of ferns by tourists. Surely a word to the wise is sufficient.

The larger and more showy of our woodland plants, as well as of many kinds that should flourish on the edges of moors and about cultivated land, have become rare, and in some cases have altogether disappeared, since the introduction of sheep-farming into Gairloch. Not only do the smearing materials applied to sheep poison the ground, and being washed down into streams check the multiplication of trout, but the close nibble of sheep deteriorates pasture, and destroys many succulent plants. In spring, before the grass on the hills has made any growth, the sheep everywhere attack the primroses, so that no early blooms can be found except among wet places and rocks. The ewes and lambs are often kept near home until summer has set in, and one can almost fancy that they have a special taste for the choicest flowering plants. Dr Mackenzie attributes the present scarceness of wildflowers to the appetites of sheep, and all who have considered the question entirely concur in this opinion. Dr Mackenzie, writing of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, says, "The braes and wooded hillocks were a perfect jungle of every kind of loveable shrubs and wildflowers, especially orchids, some of the epipactis tribe being everywhere a lovely drug."

Most of the best flowers are now only met with on steep banks, among rocks, by road sides, on soft boggy ground, by the sea-shore, or in other localities not much frequented by sheep. The epipactis ensifolia, formerly abundant, is now almost unknown in Gairloch. In June 1883 I discovered a specimen on a stony bank by water. In 1885 there were two plants at the same place. I have not seen it elsewhere, nor had Mr O. H. Mackenzie seen it until this plant was found.

Most of the gayest wildflowers are over by the time the run of tourists begins. Many of the loveliest bloom in June or early in July. A bouquet of wildflowers, well arranged in masses, does not stand long in water, but is difficult to beat for graceful forms and exquisite tones of colour. The yellow iris, the rosy sea-thrift, the purple orchis, the orange St John's wort, the ragged robin, the blue hyacinth, and the lilac valerian, are eminently fitted to display the taste of the fair florist.

Though many beautiful flowers have disappeared before September, yet in autumn the country becomes brilliant with a fresh supply. The moors are purple with heather and ling, and also teem with the orange-coloured bog asphodel, whilst the patches of corn are ablaze with the brilliant yellow corn marigold so popular for bouquets. From March to October each month has its peculiar gems, and this Highland parish yields not only the rare alpine plants of the mountains, but many equally prized treasures of the rocks and strands that edge the sea lochs. There are also several interesting plants that abound in fresh-water lochs, such as the white water-lily, the water-lobelia, and the bog-bean.

Of the rarer plants found in Gairloch the following are perhaps worthy of special note, viz., the narrow-leaved helleborine, the long-leaved sun-dew, the pale butterwort, the purple saxifrage, the stone bramble, the cloudberry, the cranberry, the water avens, the chickweed wintergreen, the arrow-grass, the trollius, the water lobelia, and several uncommon ferns.

The following list includes the indigenous trees and all the ferns I know; several plants are doubtful natives, such as the corn-poppy and corn-cockle. The order of arrangement is that adopted in Sowerby's "British Wildflowers":--

FLOWERING PLANTS OF GAIRLOCH.

Thalictrum alpinum--Alpine meadow rue. Anemone nemorosa--Wood anemone. Ranunculus aquatilis--Water crowfoot. " hederaceus--Ivy-leaved crowfoot. " flammula--Lesser spearwort. " ficaria--Small celandine; pilewort. " acris--Buttercup. " repens--Creeping buttercup. " bulbosus--Bulbous buttercup. Caltha palustris--Marsh marigold. Trollius europæus--Globe flower. Berberis vulgaris--Barberry; doubtful native. Nymphæa alba--White water-lily. Papaver dubium--Long-headed poppy. " rhœas--Corn poppy. Chelidonium majus--Celandine. Fumaria capreolata--Rampant fumitory. " officinalis--Common fumitory. Corydalis claviculata--Climbing corydalis. Cakile maritima--Sea rocket. Crambe maritima--Sea-kale. Coronopus didyma--Small wart-cress. Capsella bursa-pastoris--Shepherd's purse. Lepidium Smithii--Smooth-fruited pepperwort. Cochlearia officinalis--Scurvy-grass. " anglica--English scurvy-grass. " danica--Danish scurvy-grass. Draba verna--Whitlow-grass. " incana--Twisted-podded Draba. Cardamine pratensis--Lady's smock. " hirsuta--Hairy bitter-cress. Arabis petræa--Rock-cress. " hirsuta--Hairy wall-cress. Barbarea vulgaris--Winter cress; yellow rocket. Sisymbrium thalianum--Thale-cress. Sinapis arvensis--Charlock; wild mustard. Viola palustris--Marsh violet. " canina--Dog violet. " tricolor--Heart's-ease; pansy. " lutea--Mountain pansy. Drosera rotundifolia--Sun-dew. " longifolia--Long-leaved sun-dew. " anglica--Great sun-dew. Polygala vulgaris--Milkwort. Silene acaulis--Moss campion. " maritima--Sea campion. Lychnis flos-cuculi--Ragged Robin. " diurna, and var. vespertina--Campion. Agrostemma githago--Corn-cockle. Sagina procumbens--Creeping pearlwort. Spergula arvensis--Spurrey. " subulata--Small hairy spurrey. Stellaria media--Chickweed. " holostea--Starwort. Arenaria peploides--Sea sandwort; sea pimpernel. Cerastium vulgatum--Broad-leaved mouse-ear. " viscosum--Narrow-leaved mouse-ear. Linum catharticum--Little flax. Radiola millegrana--All-seed. Malva sylvestris--Common mallow; doubtful native. " moschata--Musk mallow; doubtful native. Hypericum perforatum--Common St John's wort. " pulchrum--Small St John's wort. Parnassia palustris--Grass of Parnassus. Geranium sanguineum--Crimson crane's-bill. " lucidum--Shining crane's-bill. " Robertianum--Herb Robert. " molle--Soft crane's-bill. Erodium cicutarium--Heron's-bill. Oxalis acetosella--Wood-sorrel. Ulex europæus--Furze; whin. Anthyllis vulneraria--Kidney-vetch. Medicago lupulina--Black medick; doubtful native. Trifolium repens--White clover. " pratense--Red clover. " procumbens--Hop trefoil. " minus--Lesser yellow trefoil. Lotus corniculatus--Bird's-foot trefoil. Vicia cracca--Tufted vetch. " sativa--Tare. " sepium--Bush vetch. Ervum hirsutum--Hairy tine-tare. Lathyrus pratensis--Meadow vetchling. Prunus spinosa--Blackthorn. " padus--Bird-cherry. " cerasus--Wild gean. Spiræa ulmaria--Meadow-sweet. Geum urbanum--Common avens. " rivale--Water avens. Rubus idæus--Raspberry. " fruticosus--Bramble. " saxatilis--Stone bramble. " chamæmorus--Cloud-berry. Fragaria vesca--Wild strawberry. Comarum palustre--Marsh cinque-foil. Potentilla anserina--Goose-weed. " reptans--Creeping cinque-foil. Tormentilla officinalis--Common tormentil. Alchemilla vulgaris--Lady's-mantle. " alpina--Alpine lady's-mantle. " arvensis--Field lady's-mantle. Rosa involuta--Unexpanded rose. " mollis--Soft-leaved rose. " canina--Dog rose. Cratægus oxyacantha--Hawthorn. Pyrus malus--Wild apple; crab. " aucuparia--Mountain ash; rowan. " aria--White beam-tree. Epilobium angustifolium--French willow-herb. " montanum--Broad-leaved willow-herb. " alsinifolium--Chickweed willow-herb. " alpinum--Alpine willow-herb. Circæa alpina--Alpine enchanter's nightshade. Montia fontana--Water blinks. Rhodiola rosea--Rose-root. Sedum anglicum--Mountain stonecrop. " acre--Stonecrop; wallpepper " reflexum--Crooked stonecrop. " glaucum--Glaucous stonecrop. Saxifraga stellaris--Starry saxifrage. " aizoides--Yellow mountain saxifrage. " oppositifolia--Purple saxifrage. " hypnoides--Ladies'-cushion. Chrysosplenium alternifolium--Golden saxifrage. " oppositifolium--Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage. Hydrocotyle vulgaris--Marsh pennywort. Ægopodium podagraria--Gout weed. Bunium flexuosum--Earth-nut. Œnanthe crocata--Hemlock dropwort. Ligusticum scoticum--Scottish lovage. Meum athamanticum--Spignel. Crithmum maritimum--Samphire. Angelica sylvestris--Wild angelica. Heracleum sphondylium--Cow-parsnip. Daucus maritima--Sea-side carrot. Scandix pecten-Veneris--Venus's comb. Anthriscus sylvestris--Cow-parsley; wild chervil. Myrrhis odorata--Sweet cicely. Hedera helix--Ivy. Cornus suecica--Dwarf cornel. Sambucus nigra--Common elder. Viburnum opulus--Guelder rose. Lonicera periclymenum--Honeysuckle. Galium verum--Yellow bed-straw. " palustre--White water bed-straw. " saxatile--Smooth heath bed-straw. " uliginosum--Rough marsh bed-straw. " aparine--Goose-grass. Sherardia arvensis--Field madder. Asperula odorata--Woodruff. Valeriana dioica--Marsh valerian. " officinalis--Great wild valerian. Scabiosa succisa--Devil's-bit. " arvensis--Field scabious. " columbaria--Small scabious. Sonchus oleraceus--Sow-thistle. Leontodon taraxacum--Dandelion. Apargia hispida--Rough hawk-bit. Hieracium alpinum--Alpine hawkweed. " sylvaticum--Wood hawkweed. Crepis tectorum--Smooth hawk's-beard. Lapsana communis--Nipplewort. Arctium lappa--Burdock. " majus--Burdock. Saussurea alpina--Alpine saussurea. Carduus nutans--Musk thistle. Cnicus lanceolatus--Spear thistle. " palustris--Marsh thistle. " arvensis--Common thistle. " heterophyllus--Dark plume thistle. Tanacetum vulgare--Tansy. Artemisia vulgaris--Mugwort. Antennaria dioica--Cat's-foot. Gnaphalium sylvaticum--Highland cudweed. " supinum--Dwarf cudweed. Tussilago farfara--Colt's-foot. Petasites vulgaris--Butter-bur. Senecio vulgaris--Groundsel. " Jacobæa--Common ragwort. " aquaticus--Marsh ragwort. Aster tripolium--Sea starwort. Solidago virgaurea--Golden-rod. Bellis perennis--Daisy. Chrysanthemum leucanthemum--Ox-eye daisy. " segetum--Corn marigold. Pyrethrum inodorum--Corn feverfew. Matricaria chamomilla--Wild chamomile. Anthemis maritima--Sea chamomile. Achillea ptarmica--Sneezewort. " millefolium--Yarrow; milfoil. Centaurea nigra--Black knapweed. " cyanus--Corn-flower; blue-bottle. Campanula rapunculoides--Creeping bell-flower. " hederacea--Ivy-leaved bell-flower; doubtful native. Lobelia dortmanna--Water lobelia. Vaccinium myrtillus--Bilberry. " vitis idæa--Cow-berry. Oxycoccus palustris--Cranberry. Erica tetralix--Cross-leaved heath; bell-heather. " cinerea--Common heath. Calluna vulgaris--Ling; heather. Azalea procumbens--Creeping azalea. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi--Red bear-berry. Pyrola minor--Lesser winter-green. " secunda--Serrated winter-green. Ilex aquifolium--Holly. Fraxinus excelsior--Ash. Gentiana campestris--Field gentian. Menyanthes trifoliata--Bog-bean. Lithospermum maritimum--Sea gromwell. Myosotis cæspitosa--Tufted forget-me-not. " arvensis--Field forget-me-not. " collina--Early forget-me-not. " versicolor--Changeable forget-me-not. Lycopsis arvensis--Bugloss. Atropa belladonna--Deadly nightshade. Orobanche rubra--Red broom-rape. Veronica serpyllifolia--Thyme-leaved speedwell. " scutellata--Marsh speedwell. " beccabunga--Brooklime. " officinalis--Common speedwell. " chamædrys--Germander speedwell. " hederifolia--Ivy-leaved speedwell. " agrestis--Germander chickweed. Bartsia odontites--Red eye-bright. Euphrasia officinalis--Eye-bright. Rhinanthus crista-galli--Yellow-rattle. Melampyrum sylvaticum--Wood cow-wheat. Pedicularis palustris--Marsh red-rattle. " sylvatica--Dwarf red-rattle. Scrophularia nodosa--Knotty figwort. " aquatica--Water figwort. Digitalis purpurea--Foxglove. Mimulus luteus--Yellow mimulus. Mentha sylvestris--Horse mint. " piperita--Peppermint. " sativa--Water mint; whorled mint. " arvensis--Corn mint. Thymus serpyllum--Wild thyme. Teucrium scorodonia--Germander. Ajuga reptans--Bugle. " pyramidalis--Pyramidal bugle. Galeopsis tetrahit--Hemp-nettle. " versicolor--Bee-nettle. Lamium album--White dead-nettle. " purpureum--Red dead-nettle. Stachys sylvatica--Hedge woundwort. " palustris--Marsh woundwort. Nepeta cataria--Cat-mint. Prunella vulgaris--Self-heal. Scutellaria galericulata--Skull-cap. Pinguicula vulgaris--Butterwort. " lusitanica--Pale butterwort. Utricularia minor--Small bladderwort. Primula vulgaris--Primrose. Glaux maritima--Sea milkwort. Trientalis europæa--Chickweed winter-green. Lysimachia nemorum--Wood pimpernel. Armeria maritima--Sea thrift. Plantago major--Greater plantain. " lanceolata--Ribwort. " maritima--Sea plantain. " coronopus--Buck's-horn plantain. Beta maritima--Beet. Chenopodium maritimum--Sea goosefoot. " urbicum--Upright goosefoot. " murale--Nettle-leaved goosefoot. " album--White goosefoot. " " var. candicans. " " var. paganum. Salicornia herbacea--Glasswort. Salsola kali--Saltwort. Scleranthus annuus--Knawel. Atriplex patula--Spreading orache. Polygonum viviparum--Alpine bistort. " aviculare--Knot-grass. " persicaria--Spotted persicaria. " hydropiper--Biting persicaria. " maritimum--Sea knot-grass. " convolvolus--Black bindweed. " amphibium--Water persicaria. Rumex crispus--Curled dock. " obtusifolius--Broad-leaved dock. " acetosa--Sorrel. " acetosella--Sheep's sorrel. Oxyria reniformis--Mountain sorrel. Empetrum nigrum--Crow-berry. Mercurialis perennis--Mercury. Euphorbia helioscopia--Sun-spurge. " peplus--Petty-spurge. Callitriche verna--Springwater starwort. Urtica dioica--Common nettle. Ulmus montana--Wych elm. Myrica gale--Sweet gale; bog-myrtle. Betula alba--White birch. " nana--Dwarf birch. Alnus glutinosa--Alder. Salix pentandra--Sweet willow. " alba--White willow. " angustifolia--Little tree-willow. " ambigua--Ambiguous willow. " reticulata--Net-leaved willow. " viminalis--Common osier. " cinerea--Grey sallow. " caprea--Great sallow. " nigricans--Dark-leaved willow. " herbacea--Dwarf willow. Populus tremula--Aspen. Quercus robur, or pedunculata--Oak. Corylus avellana--Hazel. Pinus sylvestris--Scotch fir. Juniperus communis--Juniper. " nana--Dwarf juniper. Orchis maculata--Spotted orchis. Gymnadenia conopsea--Fragrant orchis. Habenaria albida--Small white orchis. " chlorantha--Butterfly orchis. " bifolia--Smaller butterfly orchis. Herminium monorchis--Green musk orchis. Listera ovata--Tway-blade. Epipactis ensifolia--Narrow-leaved helleborine. Iris pseud-acorus--Yellow iris. Hyacinthus non-scriptus--Wild hyacinth. Allium oleraceum--Wild garlic. " ursinum--Ramsons. Tofieldia palustris--Scottish asphodel. Narthecium ossifragum--Bog asphodel. Juncus conglomeratus--Common rush. " lamprocarpus, or articulatus--Jointed rush. " triglumis--Three-flowered rush. Luzula sylvatica--Great hairy-rush. " spicata--Spiked hairy-rush. Triglochin palustre--Arrow-grass. " maritimum--Sea-side arrow-grass. Potamogeton natans--Broad-leaved pond-weed. " lucens--Shining pond-weed. " oblongus--Oblong-leaved pond-weed. Eriophorum vaginatum--Hare's-tail cotton-grass. " angustifolium--Common cotton-grass. Equisetum arvense--Field horse-tail. " sylvaticum--Wood horse-tail. " limosum--Smooth horse-tail. " palustre--Marsh horse-tail. Polypodium vulgare--Common polypody. " phegopteris--Mountain polypody; beech fern. " dryopteris--Tender three-branched polypody; oak fern. Lastrea oreopteris--Sweet mountain fern; mountain buckler fern. " filix-mas--Male fern. " spinulosa--Narrow prickly-toothed buckler fern. " dilatata--Broad prickly-toothed buckler fern. Polystichum lonchitis--Holly fern. " lobatum--Close-leaved prickly shield-fern. Cystopteris fragilis--Brittle bladder fern. Athyrium filix-fœmina--Lady fern. Asplenium adiantum-nigrum--Black spleenwort. " trichomanes--Common wall spleenwort. " viride--Green spleenwort. " marinum--Sea spleenwort. " ruta-muraria--Wall rue. " septentrionale--Forked spleenwort. Scolopendrium vulgare--Common hart's-tongue. Blechnum boreale--Hard fern. Pteris aquilina--Common brake. Hymenophyllum Wilsoni--Scottish filmy fern. Osmunda regalis--Royal or flowering fern. Botrychium lunaria--Moonwort. Ophioglossum vulgatum--Common adder's tongue. Lycopodium clavatum--Common club-moss. " annotinum--Interrupted club-moss. " alpinum--Savin-leaved club-moss. " selago--Fir club-moss.

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VIII. SHELLS OF GAIRLOCH

By the REV. JOHN M'MURTRIE, M.A.

The following article appeared in Good Words in August 1883, and is generously contributed to this work by the author, the Rev. John M'Murtrie, lately minister of St Bernard's Church, Edinburgh, and now convener of the Foreign Mission Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Mr M'Murtrie has kindly added an appendix containing a list of shells, prepared by him expressly for this book. The article, which is inserted here with the consent of the Rev. Donald Macleod, D.D., editor of Good Words, is entitled--

"SPRING-TIDE AT GAIRLOCH, WEST ROSS--

A STUDY OF SMALL SHELLS.

"By the way, some people know as little about spring-tides as about small shells. I lately read, in a thrilling narrative of escape from drowning, 'It was neap-tide, and the sea was very far out.' Evidently the writer supposed that neap-tides are the very low tides, just as spring-tides are the very high ones. Of course, the truth is, that spring-tides both rise very high and fall very low; while neap-tides are the tides of least variation,--when, in short, the tides are nipped, and do not fall very low.[1] Once a fortnight there is a series of spring-tides, but, for reasons astronomical, some are much better than others. The half-hour of lowest recess of a first-rate spring-tide is precious to naturalists. You may chance to find them then at the edge of the sea, working, as if for dear life, under rock ledges and among seaweeds; and, wading as deep as they can, with bare arms they lift great stones from the bottom, and examine them for their living treasures. The sea in calm weather becomes very still during that half hour. When it is ended there occurs a remarkable thing, which I have never seen mentioned in books, but I think many shore-naturalists and bait-gatherers must know it. It is a sort of shudder of the sea, as though it awoke; there is a sudden strong susurrus,--the sound of that wonderful Latin word tells you its meaning,--the wash-sh of a swift little wave, breaking all along the shore and rising in every crevice at your feet, the first impact of a resistless power. At such a time I found myself at Gairloch, on the shore of Western Ross, beyond that gem of Scottish lakes, Loch Maree.

"Naturalists divide every shore into its upper, middle, and lower 'littoral zone.' I cannot write this paper without using a few hard words; littoral zone just means the beach between high and low tide-marks. Those plants and animals which live in the 'upper littoral' want no more of the sea than an occasional bath, or even merely its salt spray. The middle region is inhabited by species which prefer to be half their time under water, and the lower by those which agree with being usually submerged. Below the littoral we come upon the great laminarian zone, the region of waving laminaria, or sea-tangle. The best view of this submarine forest is from a boat, and you may have dipped an oar at low-water among its olive-brown fronds. These are not uncovered at ordinary tides, but a low spring-tide reveals them. Changed and weird is then the aspect of the sea, and the searcher has access to what he calls the 'upper laminarian.' It is but little harm after all that he ever does, if we take into account the prodigality with which the shore is furnished with life. But should a storm rage when the spring-tide is low, the waves tear up the tangles by hundreds, and pile them, with their countless freight of living shells and other creatures of God, in irretrievable ruin on the strand.

"At Gairloch I found that the rocky shore, while not precipitous, was yet so steep that the various zones and their subdivisions, which on a level beach may easily occupy a mile, were compressed into a very small space. Every few steps in a downward scramble brought one to a new vegetation and new forms of animal life. In particular, it was obvious that innumerable molluscs of the smaller, and therefore less-known species, found shelter and food among the seaweeds that densely clothed the rocks. These molluscs seemed brought to my hand that I might look at them. It occurred to me that no shell-gatherer, so far as I knew, had ever made it his study to know with exactness a compact little shore like this, to determine all the species of those myriads of living shells, to note their distribution and relative abundance, and to estimate the number of individuals.

"It was necessary first of all to devise a right method of investigation. To examine the whole shore was impossible and unnecessary. Plainly I must take samples. The rocks just below high-water mark were covered with a thick stubble of lichina, a small plant resembling the lichens of the land. Various species of minute sea-shells nestled plentifully at its roots. As much of the lichina as two hands could hold was soon scraped from the rocks, wrapped in paper, and called Parcel No. 1. Though months passed before I had leisure to scrutinize my prize, I may here state the result. When all the lichina and broken plates of barnacles and other débris had been removed, there remained twelve hundred and twenty perfect shells, which had been alive when captured; and when they were all put into a pill-box of the smallest size used by druggists, it was scarcely two-thirds full. The leading shell was a dwarf form of our smallest winkle, Littorina neritoïdes,--a species which may almost be said to dislike the sea, though it cannot live far from it. There were six hundred and three of this tiny winkle. Next came lasaea, a red and white bivalve (L. rubra), with four hundred and thirty-nine, mostly full grown. Small as it is, you may, with care and a good lens, open its valves and count a score of young ones within, each having a shell like that of its parent. Skenea (S. planorbis) was third, with a hundred and six shells, each like a short and not quite flat coil of brown rope. But a large skenea is less than the head of a small pin, and these were all young. The rest were a few specimens of the fry of all our other British winkles, and of the common mussel. Rissoa--so named from a naturalist of Nice, M. Risso--is a genus of humble spiral-shelled molluscs, which feed upon decaying seaweeds. Two specks in the parcel shewed themselves under the lens, by the bands which encircled their whorls, to be the young of Rissoa cingillus,--the rissoa, with the little belts around it.

"It would weary the ordinary reader to go through such details in the rest of this paper. I only seek to give him a glimpse into a world of life, of whose existence he was perhaps scarcely aware.

"Parcel No. 2 was an equal quantity of a small seaweed, with a long name, Polysiphonia fastigiata, which fringes common wrack between tides with its thick and branching tufts. Nothing can be simpler than the process of separating thousands of shells from such a handful. You put your seaweeds in a basin of cold fresh water, and all the molluscs instantly let go and fall to the bottom. When those of this parcel were dried, the little pill-box was again in requisition; they exactly filled it. If anybody wants precision, there were forty-two minims of shells. It may give a new thought to some one to read that there were in that box about twelve thousand five hundred shells, each of them a marvel of beauty, and each of them only the external skeleton of a highly organised creature, which secreted and built up that shell bit by bit as its soft body grew larger, and which mixed in the colours and lined it with mother-of-pearl. The little skenea, which began to appear in our first parcel, reached here the extraordinary development of about eleven thousand eight hundred specimens, of which one hundred and thirty-eight were grown up, while all the rest, to the unassisted eye, were like dust, and weighed only eleven and a half grains. The remainder of the parcel consisted of twelve species, ranging in number of examples from one to three hundred and fifty. The shell of which there was but a single specimen was Cyamium minutum, a glittering bivalve, somewhat smaller than lasaea.

"Parcel No. 3 was made up by scraping from the rock a small strong-smelling seaweed called Laurencia, which grows near low-water. It yielded about twenty thousand shells, belonging to fourteen species, and they more than filled two of the little boxes. The most remarkable circumstance was, that the shining little bivalve cyamium, which was represented by a solitary specimen in the second parcel, formed here at least three-fifths of the whole. In other words, twelve thousand individuals, old, young, and middle-aged, of this cyamium--each of them a good walker, a good swimmer, a good spinner when it wished to moor itself by a rope, and each the maker of its own polished shell--were clustered upon a handful of one of their favourite plants. I could not get them till now, because I was not near enough to the edge of the ebb tide. It may be worth noting that there are other shell-gatherers who know where to look for cyamium, for it is told in books upon shells that thirty-five thousand cyamiums were once taken from the stomach of a mullet.

"No. 4 was a parcel of the same size as all the rest, and consisted of various small seaweeds growing at ordinary low water. It proved to contain about eight thousand five hundred shells, of ten species. There was scarcely a bivalve among them. Two lacunæ (cousins to the winkles), and a pearly top-shell (Trochus helicinus), shewed by their abundance that the verge of the accessible shore was nearly reached.

"No. 5 was a parcel of the same kind, from the lowest point of the spring-tide, and produced about thirteen thousand shells. The between-tides species--such as skenea--now visibly began to fail, and a few shells from deeper water, including a youthful scallop, made their appearance.

"The tide was about to turn. Could one more 'parcel' be achieved? From the rock there was visible, far down in the quiet depth, a giant frond of laminaria, apparently detached, but likely still to have its shelly inhabitants upon it. The day was warm, the spot retired, the water inviting; to swim downwards with the eyes open is easy, if you learned as a boy. Soon the laminaria was gently laid on dry rock. It was quite ten feet long, and bore one hundred and fifty-seven little shells of nine species, one of them a prize--Rissoa violacea.

"This record is not written for conchologists, but for others to whom its facts are unfamiliar or unknown. Two dozen species, most of them common, and three or four varieties, were all that were found. But, of individual shells there were fifty-five thousand. A calculation, necessarily rough, but as likely to be under the truth as over it, led to the conclusion that, if it were possible to examine all the seaweeds which the lowest tide leaves bare for a stretch of only twenty-five or thirty yards along that shore, a hundred million living shell-bearing molluscs would be found. Of all these not even the smallest would, strictly speaking, be a microscopic object, though certainly requiring a lens for the determination of its species. A hundred millions! How easily we set down the words! And neither the writer nor anybody else has the least conception of what they represent. And if, from that little nook on the Gairloch as a measured base, I tried to estimate the molluscan population of our British shores, making due allowance for the comparative barrenness of many places, I might fill a large part of one of these lines with figures; but who would be any the wiser?

"We are not to suppose that a shore so prolific as that of Gairloch has really only twenty-four kinds of shells. That no more were found among the seaweeds examined, is simply due to the circumstance that all the samples were taken from the same kind of ground. Hard by, round a jutting rock, there is a sandy shell-strewn beach on which, without trouble, fifty species may be gathered,--some of them such rarities that the reading of their names is enough to make an eager collector wish he might forthwith take train for Achnasheen.[2] Let us single out one. Time was when Crenella decussata was known to naturalists by a single valve. Here, in a little shell-sand, were six perfect specimens, the valves united and closed, or each what children call a 'box.' Imagine an almost transparent pearl, the size of a grain of mustard seed, suffused with opaline gleams, and covered with exquisite latticed and bead-like sculpture. It wants nothing but size to rival the most splendid exotics.

"Nothing but size! But, to most people, size is everything; wherefore to them the small shells and their beauty are not. Their minuteness hides them as though they were in a far-off and uninhabited isle. To science bulk is an accident, only one of the many properties which she has to consider. What science does for us--even for those of us who, being otherwise busy, can be naturalists only in our leisure time--is something still more important than providing us with a magnifying lens. She takes away that mental habitude which makes minuteness a barrier to interest,--she puts her hand on the inward eye, and we see. Whosoever has been thus touched, has an 'open-sesame' to a treasure-house, has a slave of the lamp to make rubies common. And, besides all this, who dare say that that hidden world of beauty and adaptation is wasted, is lost, till the scientific observer draws near? Certainly he who has watched the little molluscs at their love and their play will be slow to think that they have not a sense of beauty which can be pleased. He who notes how the shells during life are protected from their enemies by their colours; how they are brown and yellow and red like the seaweed on which they feed; how they are pink and white among those algæ which are encrusted with lime; how they are transparent and iridescent as any jelly-fish in the clear sea-water,--has a glimpse into the process by which the Divine Architect who works through the ages fashioned those manifold species. And I, for one, am of Charles Kingsley's creed in this matter:--'See now,' said the hero of 'Westward Ho!' to his brother, as they looked at flies and flowers and humming-birds in a West Indian island, uninhabited till the white man came,--'See now, God made all these things, and never a man, perhaps, set eyes on them till fifty years agone; and yet they were as pretty as they are now, ever since the making of the world. And why do you think God could have put them here, then, but to please Himself'--and Amyas took off his hat--'with the sight of them?'"

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Appendix

Mr Dixon has kindly sent me a considerable quantity of shell-sand from Gairloch shore. I have examined it, and found the following sea-shells. Those which were somewhat plentiful are marked with an asterisk. It would be easy to name some additional shells which will probably be found on Gairloch shore, though they were absent from the sand examined; but I have preferred not to do so.

*Anomia ephippium. * Do. do., var. imbricata. *Pecten opercularis. P. similis (a valve). *Mytilus edulis. *Modiolaria discors. *Crenella decussata. *Montacuta ferruginosa (single valves). M. bidentata. Kellia suborbiculata. *Cyamium minutum. *Cardium edule. *C. nodosum. C. echinatum. C. Norvegicum. *Cyprina Islandica. Astarte sulcata (a valve). A. triangularis. *Venus gallina. V. lincta. V. exoleta. *V. casina. V. ovata (a valve). *Tapes virgineus. Do. do., var. alba. *Tellina tenuis. *T. fabula. T. pusilla. *Psammobia ferroënsis. *Donax vittatus. *Mactra stultorum. Do. do., var. cinerea. M. subtruncata. M. solida. Scrobicularia prismatica. *Solen siliqua. *Thracia papyracea. *Saxicava rugosa. * Do. do., var. arctica. * Do. do., var. minuta. *Patella vulgata. * Do. do., var. picta. * Do. do., var. cœrulea. *Helcion pellucidum. * Do. do., var. lævis. Tectura testudinalis. *T. virginea. *Trochus cinerarius. T. umbilicatus. *T. millegranus (young shells). *T. helicinus. *Do. do., var. fasciata. T. zizyphinus. *Lacuna divaricata. *L. pallidula. *Littorina obtusata. *L. litorea. *L. rudis. *Do. do., var. saxatilis. *L. neritoides. *Rissoa violacea. *Do. do., var. ecostata. R. semistriata. *R. striata. *Do. do., var. arctica. *R. parva. *Do. do., var. interrupta. R. punctura (a fragment). *R. cingillus. *Hydrobia ulvæ. Do. do., var. albida. *Skenea planorbis. Cœcum glabrum (one specimen). C. trachea (one specimen). Odostomia rissoïdes. O. indistincta. O. lactea. *O. nitidissima. *Natica Alderi. Velutina lævigata. *Aporrhaïs pes-pelecani. *Cerithium reticulatum. *Purpura lapillus. Do. do., var. imbricata. Buccinum undatum. Fusus antiquus. *Nassa incrassata. Do. do., var. minor. Pleurotoma striolata (one specimen). *Cylichna umbilicata. *Utriculus truncatulus. U. obtusus. *U. hyalinus. U. mammillatus (two specimens). Philine catena. P. angulata (one specimen). Melampus bidentatus. Spirialis retroversus.

The following are a few notes on the land and fresh-water shells:--

Pisidium fontinale--Occurred in the shell-sand, having been washed down to the sea by streams. I found a fine variety--perhaps var. pulchella--in a pond between Gairloch and Loch Maree.

Ancylus fluviatilis--Several among the shell-sand.

Succinea putris--Two among the shell-sand.

Vitrina pellucida--Not uncommon under stones, &c.

Zonites cellarius--Two among the shell-sand. I found it also living among stones.

Zonites nitidulus, var. nitens--Living among stones, &c.

Zonites purus--Among dead leaves.

Zonites radiatulus--Two among the shell-sand. It is probably not rare under stones, &c.

Zonites fulvus--Among dead leaves.

Helix nemoralis--Among the shell-sand.

Helix rotundata--Under stones.

Pupa umbilicata--Under stones. The variety edentula occurs.

Balia perversa--Common at the foot of walls near the parish church, and probably in other places.

Clausilia rugosa--Under stones, &c.

Cochlicopa lubrica--Three among the shell-sand.

J. M'MURTRIE.

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IX. THE GEOLOGY OF LOCH MAREE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD

By WILLIAM JOLLY.

The geology of Loch Maree is unusually varied, interesting, and representative. It exhibits, in a limited area, the whole debated series of the succession of rocks in the North-West Highlands. This has been a fertile subject of controversy, surpassed only by the world-famous Glen Roy. It has engaged the attention and the pens of some of the most eminent British geologists, including Macculloch, Hugh Miller, Sedgwick, Sir Roderick Murchison, Professor Nicol of Aberdeen, Archibald Geikie, and a host of others not less able. After considerable discussion, chiefly between Murchison and Nicol, the authoritative name of Murchison, along with that of Archibald Geikie, who wrote a joint memoir on the subject, seemed for a time finally to settle the question in Murchison's favour; and his views were not only generally received, but were embodied in the geological maps of the district most in use. But, lately, the whole question has been reopened with greater keenness than ever, and the conclusions of the geological king have been vigorously and uncompromisingly assailed all along the line. The war is, at the present date, in full swing, but with a near prospect of final peace. The geological problem of the Highlands is by no means settled, though much additional light has been thrown on the debatable ground by the researches of the numerous and capable combatants, including recently Peach and Horne, of the Geological Survey; and their investigations will no doubt hasten the final determination of the vexed question. But a firm basis of interpretation has at length been gained, by which the geological structure of the broad tracts of the Highlands, hitherto uniformly coloured as Silurian, will be investigated under new and important lights, and a remapping of the Highland area erelong achieved, with such permanent results as have hitherto been impossible.

The conditions of the problem are extremely well exhibited round Loch Maree. Here we are presented, as Dr Archibald Geikie truly observes, with "a series of sections of singular clearness." He confesses that he knows of "no locality where the geologist may better acquaint himself with the order of superposition of the ancient crystalline rocks of the Highlands, or with the dislocations and metamorphism which they have undergone." These will now be briefly explained. The whole subject may, without much difficulty, be understood by the ordinary reader, if he will use a geological map of Scotland, such as Nicol's or Geikie's, which he will also find useful as a guide.

A.--THE SERIES OF ROCKS IN THE NORTH-WEST HIGHLANDS.

The rocks round Loch Maree are shortly the following:--

I. THE HEBRIDEAN GNEISS.--The Long Island from the Butt of the Lews to Barra Head consists almost entirely of a species of gneiss, very much metamorphosed. It occurs in the Inner Hebrides in Tiree and Coll, in Sleat, in Raasay, and Rona, off Portree, but very little in Skye, one of our youngest isles. It is found in patches on the Mainland on the western shores of Ross and Sutherland, and stretches from Torridon to Cape Wrath, whose contorted cliffs it forms. It has been variously designated Hebridean, from being chiefly found in the Hebrides; Lewisean, from forming the most of the Lewis, a less acceptable name; Archæan, from being the earliest system; Pre-Cambrian, as being earlier than the Cambrian sandstone immediately above it; and Fundamental, from its constituting the lowest rock strata in the British Isles. Murchison identified it with the lowest geological series, the Laurentian, which is so named from being extensively developed on the St Lawrence in Canada. It is best, however, to designate the rocks by a geographical and non-theoretical term, like Hebridean.

This gneiss is more largely exhibited on the shores of Loch Maree than any other rock, forming the greater part of its northern side from the exit of the Ewe to Slioch, and running along its southern side from near Inverasdale on Loch Ewe to Talladale. It stretches northwards from the lake to Loch Gruinard, and westwards to Poolewe and Gairloch, where its characteristics are very well seen on the wave-beaten coast near the hotel there. It forms the rugged outlines of Craig Tollie, at the west end of the loch, and of Beinn Aridh Charr and Beinn Lair, near Letterewe. It shows one of the most magnificent series of furrowed precipices in Britain, at the back of Beinn Lair, which should be visited by all who appreciate the wildly grand; and entirely encloses the lone Loch Fionn and its darker chamber of the Dubh Loch at its head. North of Coigeach, it occupies most of the west coast on the mainland up to Cape Wrath; and southwards, there is a patch of it at the Narrows of Loch Torridon. From recent researches, it will probably be found widely extended over the rest of the Highlands.

It is more or less vertical in dip on the west coast, and has there a general persistent strike from north-west to south-east. The special character of its scenery is very well seen round Loch Assynt, and is well presented in the parish of Gairloch. As shewn on the map, it forms the splendid peak of Alligin, above three thousand feet, which towers above Loch Torridon, from which it passes to the head of the Gairloch, where it is admirably exhibited in structure, dip, and strike on the shore near the Free church and along the picturesque road to Poolewe. It contains some limestone on Loch Maree in a line parallel to the loch, for some miles on both sides of Letterewe. A vigorous attempt has recently been made by Dr Hicks to discriminate this gneiss into certain series or epochs, which he has named, and by which he seeks to interpret the rest of the Highlands.[3] In America, the Laurentian system contains the celebrated Eozoon Canadense, that is, the Canadian Dawnlife, the lowest organic form yet known. It has as yet proved absolutely barren in Europe, though a flutter was raised by its supposed discovery by Dr Heddle of St Andrews, Dr Carpenter asserting the fact, but its discoverer, on further examination, disclaiming the honour.

II. THE TORRIDON SANDSTONE.--This is the chocolate-coloured sandstone so splendidly exhibited round Loch Torridon, where it towers into the mural dignity of Liathgach. It is well presented in the mountains of Applecross, as seen from Loch Carron, and from Loch Kishorn which lies at their southern base. This sandstone occurs only at one spot in the Outer Hebrides, round the harbour of Stornoway; it is found in Rum, its southermost position, in Sleat, Scalpa, Raasay, and neighbouring islets; it occurs continuously, except where the Hebridean gneiss appears, from Loch Carron to Coulmore near Loch Inver, and thence in isolated patches, north to the Kyle of Durness. The scenery it presents is uncommonly striking, massive and grand, its mural character, which arises from its horizontal strata, being a special feature, and nothing in style can anywhere surpass the splendid spear-headed crest of Slioch, the monarch of the mountains, worthy though his compeers are, that stand round Loch Maree. The denudation to which this ancient sandstone has been subjected has been extraordinary. This is well seen round our loch, when we consider that Slioch is above three thousand feet in height; but still more impressively, from the sea off Loch Inver, in the sugar-loaf cone of Suilven and its brethren, all isolated stacks of Torridon sandstone,--so remarkable that Murchison selected this scene as the most striking example of denudation he knew, to illustrate the subject in his famous "Siluria."

Round Loch Maree, it forms its southern shores east of Talladale, where its character can be well examined in the delightful drive from Kenlochewe. On the north side, it touches the loch only at its two extremities, at the one end, near Inveran and along the Ewe, and at the other, in Slioch, stopping short of the head of the lake, as can easily be seen from the south side. It is more or less horizontal, or dips slightly to the south-east, being deposited in thick, well-marked beds, as everywhere exhibited, and thus forms a remarkable contrast to the vertical strata on which it rests. An excellent junction of the two, easily reached and examined, occurs on the shores of Gairloch, at the end of the rocky peninsula on which the Free church stands. There the two are seen, the more or less horizontal Torridon superposed on the vertical Hebridean, in the most striking style, which is rendered all the clearer by the washing of the restless tides. This sandstone about Loch Maree is about four thousand feet in thickness.

It was correlated by Murchison with the Cambrian system, the second in the geologic series, and was so named by him,--a name now recognised by the chief authorities. It is well, however, to designate it by a neutral geographical term, and to retain the title given it by Professor Nicol, that of Torridon Sandstone, or Torridon Red. In Scotland, it has as yet yielded no organic remains, though these are abundant and good in Wales, after whose ancient name of Cambria it is called, and also in Scandinavia, which remained united to Scotland till post-glacial times. It was long thought to be a western representative of the Old Red Sandstone of the east coast, Hugh Miller, among others, looking on it as a worthy example of his pet rocks; but in his day, the geology of the Highlands was but dimly and imperfectly known, and their great problems were not even surmised.

Like the Old Red, a fact that tended to mislead early observers, its lowest bed is a thick massy conglomerate or breccia, which is very well seen at the junction at Gairloch, and which is generally persistent throughout the system on the west coast. It consists of varied pieces, sometimes rounded, often angular, and some of them large, of the under-lying Hebridean rocks, enclosed in a finer matrix of the same materials. Portions of the "Eastern rocks" have, it seems, also been detected in it,--a fact which, if established, indicates the true age and succession of these "Eastern rocks."

III. THE QUARTZITE.--Above the Torridon Red, lies a thick-bedded whitish rock, called from its general appearance Quartzite. This French word is, however, a partly misleading term, as the rock is not quartz, though much made up of quartz grains; but it is a highly metamorphosed fine sandstone. It is here sometimes coincident in dip with the underlying Red, but it is generally non-conformable. It can be easily seen, looking from the south side of Loch Maree, at a point east of Slioch, on the right side of a glen watered by a stream called the Fasagh, which separates Slioch from the ridge to the east. In Glen Fasagh, the Torridon Red is clearly observed to rest horizontally on the Hebridean gneiss below, on both sides of the glen; the Torridon forming the most of the western side of the valley up to the summit of Slioch, but rising, on the eastern side, only half-way up, being then surmounted by the strongly contrasted Quartzite to the top of the ridge. The Quartzite continues eastwards to the wide glen beyond, generally but erroneously called "Glen Laggan," or "Glen Logan," though its real name is Glen Cruaidh Choillie.[4]

A vertical fault exists in the middle of this Quartzite ridge, situated halfway between the two glens, and is easily distinguished by the eye from the other side of Loch Maree. It has thrown down the rocks on the eastern half of the ridge some distance, and affects both the Quartzite and the Torridon Red below.

This Quartzite is devoid of mica. It passes from pale pinkish to pure white in colour, and occurs in thick, uncommonly regular beds, with rectangular joints. It is well developed at the head of Loch Maree, and rises into the white, glistening, barren peaks and ridges of Beinn Eay. It forms some admirable scenery, not only here but wherever it occurs, for it is widely distributed over the Highlands.

Its capabilities in this way are also well exhibited on the west coast round Loch Assynt, rising there into the summits of Beinn More and Queenaig, above three thousand feet; and also near Loch Carron to the south, and between Assynt and Eriboll to the north. On Loch Torridon, its prevailing tendency to whiteness gives rise to the name Grey Heads, very descriptive of certain contorted peaks near Coulin Lodge.

The Quartzite is interesting as exhibiting the earliest indications of organic life yet discovered in Scotland:--

1. Annelid Borings.--The lower beds next the Torridon contain, on their surface, as described by Murchison, "large round knobs on the top of cylindrical bodies, which pass through several layers," their number being often astonishing. These are, it is safely concluded, "infillings of excavations" made by certain worms called Annelids, and are known as Annelid Borings. They are noteworthy as "the oldest vestiges of life which can be detected in the North Highlands." They are often very clearly seen, as the filling in has generally been done by a different coloured sand from that in which they had been bored. They sometimes project above the surface like "pipes," and are so numerous as to cause these beds to be called "pipe-rock." Examples are abundant round Kenlochewe, and on the roadside at the entrance to Glen Cruaidh Choillie, where they are unusually good. They should be secured by the intelligent visitor from their extraordinary interest.

2. Fucoid Remains.--Interstratified with the Quartzite, are certain brown, mottled, shaly and flaggy bands, with curious impressions of what seem leaves, which have been thought to be fucoids or seaweeds. The recent Survey explorations would seem to point to their being simply very much squeezed annelid "pipes." The shales in which they occur are thus generally known as the Fucoid Beds, and, when found, are very good evidence of the horizon of the rocks. They are often very distinct and easily seen, and are most interesting. They occur on Loch Maree near the top of the east side of Glen Fasagh, imbedded in the Quartzite, and run through the Quartzite to Glen Cruaidh Choillie.

Other organisms have been found in it elsewhere, such as orthoceratite in Assynt, and certain small conical bodies called serpulites.

This Quartzite, with its annelid borings and fucoid beds, is placed by Murchison in the Silurian series, the third in the geological record. By others, such as Dr Hicks, it is considered possibly Cambrian.

IV. THE LIMESTONE.--On the western side of Glen Cruaidh Choillie, resting on the Quartzite, and generally conformable with it, is found a limestone. By examining the map, it will be seen that this limestone runs more or less continuously from Loch Carron to Loch Eriboll. It receives its greatest development at Inchnadamph, at the east end of Loch Assynt, where it forms splendid cliffs. It is of commercial value, and has been worked at various places along its outcrop. It will also be observed that there is a wide isolated patch of limestone at Durness, between Loch Eriboll and Cape Wrath.

In this Durness limestone, which was long considered unfossiliferous, like the other rocks of the North-West Highlands, shells were discovered in 1854 by Mr Peach, the eminent geologist, and friend of Dick of Thurso. These were determined to be Silurian by Mr Salter, a great specialist in such matters, and were described and figured in a paper by Sir Roderick Murchison in 1858.[5] Since then finer specimens have been discovered. Their likeness to British Silurian fossils is very remote, and they are more related to American forms; but they are generally now accepted as of Silurian or Ordovician age. This discovery of fossils gave a great impetus to the study of these rocks, and formed the basis of the theory propounded by Sir Roderick Murchison.

The Durness limestone turns out, however, to be, as a whole, of a different type from the great strike of limestone which goes through Glen Cruaidh Choillie and terminates at Loch Eriboll. This Durness limestone is held by Dr Heddle, who first ascertained the fact, and by other competent authorities, to be non-dolomitic, while that of the great strike to the east is dolomitic; dolomite (so called from the French geologist Dolomieu) being a variety of limestone, which, in addition to the carbonate of lime of which common limestone mainly consists, contains more or less carbonate of magnesia,--in this dolomite, forty-eight per cent. Dolomitic beds have, however, lately been discovered in the Durness basin by the Survey. For long, no fossils were obtained from the great dolomitic strike, except an orthoceratite at Assynt by Mr Peach, and a possible organic mass by myself at the same place; but recently a varied and important suite of fossils has been gathered by the Survey, which has clearly decided the age of the Dolomite to be Silurian. Of its position above the Quartzite there is no doubt.

It is pretty well exhibited in Glen Cruaidh Choillie, where it has been worked at various places, and where its superposed junction with the Quartzite can be seen.

V. THE "LOGAN ROCK."--Immediately to the east of the Limestone, and in contact with it, is found a remarkable rock, which appears at various parts in the middle of Glen Cruaidh Choillie, and which has caused great discussion in regard to its character, relative position, and age. By Professor Nicol, it was held to be igneous, serpentinous, felspathic, porphyritic, and intrusive, and was named by him "Igneous rock;" by Murchison, to be here a "syenite," and elsewhere a "greenstone," and "serpentinous and felspathic," interbedded with and resting directly upon the limestone; by Dr Hicks and others, to be a "syenite," or a "granitic" and "quartz diorite," and igneous, faulted, and intrusive, like Nicol; and by Dr Callaway, as the Hebridean gneiss "brought up by a fault." It is well here, as in all other cases, to designate it geographically, and call it the "Logan Rock," as first suggested by Heddle, and now generally used.

In "Glen Logan," it is best exposed in the bed of the river about two miles above the school. At a point about halfway up the glen it runs up the hill on the west side, and is seen to overlie the limestone.

This rock appears, as maintained by Nicol, more or less continuously associated with the limestone strike, and assumes a great variety of forms, as shewn by the different characterisations it has received. It has played an important part in the history of the theories of the succession of these Highland rocks. In Sutherland, it sometimes receives a broad development.

VI. THE "EASTERN GNEISS."--Immediately to the east of this rock, rising in Glen Cruaidh Choillie at once from contact with the "Logan Rock," and forming the whole of the eastern wall of the glen, there stretches a long series of shales, schists, gneiss, and other rocks. These appear on both sides of Glen Dochartie, and thence on eastwards through Ross and the main body of the Highlands, till they are overlaid by the Old Red Sandstone of the east coast. The position and interpretation of these rocks have caused extraordinary investigation and discussion, which is still being carried on. They are variously known as the "Eastern gneiss," "Eastern schists," by Murchison and others; the term "Caledonian" has also been proposed by Dr Callaway,--all to distinguish them from the Hebridean of the west coast.

B.--THE CONTROVERSY REGARDING THE SUCCESSION OF THESE ROCKS.

Up to the Limestone, the order of succession of the rocks may be regarded as settled, all parties agreeing as to their relations though differing as to their classification under the early geological systems. It is held that the order is,--lowest, the Hebridean gneiss; above that, very unconformably, the Torridon Red; above that, less unconformably, the Quartzite, with its embedded organic remains; and above that, more or less conformably, the Limestone, with its numerous fossils. At this point, begins the controversy which has so long been waged regarding the nature and succession of the rocks in the North-West Highlands, and which has passed through many phases of opinion, and even disturbed the long-tried friendship between the chief combatants, Murchison and Nicol.

The "Logan Rock" Murchison considered to rest on the Limestone, and not to be intrusive and igneous as thought by Nicol. He also maintained that the "Eastern gneisses and schists" lay more or less conformably above the limestone or interbedded syenite, and were therefore more recent,--in fact, were a continuation of the Silurian system, of which the limestone was the representative example.

Professor Nicol held to the last,[6] that the Limestone is the highest rock in the whole series of the North-West Highlands; that faulting or igneous action exists along the line of the "Igneous rocks," associated with the Limestone; that these "Eastern gneisses and schists" do not overlie the Limestone; that where they seem to do this, the appearance is caused by an overlapping of these "Eastern rocks" through pressure from the east; and that these rocks are probably the Hebridean, or, as he called it, the "Fundamental," gneiss reappearing. Latterly, he did not condescend to identify any of these rocks of the North-West with the received geological epochs, leaving this to be settled by subsequent investigation; but he held strenuously that the succession was as he declared,--Fundamental gneiss, Torridon Red, Quartzite, and Limestone, the rocks east of this point being metamorphic forms of the western gneiss reappearing.

Murchison, at last associated with Dr Archibald Geikie, who in 1858 wrote a joint memoir with him on the subject of great value,[7] held, on the other hand, that there exists an unbroken series from the Fundamental or Laurentian gneiss to these "Eastern gneisses and schists," and that they succeed each other in superposition and age. They, moreover, classified them as Laurentian, Cambrian, and Silurian; the Silurian beginning with the Quartzite, and continuing eastwards in various folds and reduplications till overlaid by the Old Red Sandstone. Other points of difference existed between these eminent geologists, particularly as to the existence of two Quartzites, and two Limestones, as apparently exhibited at Assynt and elsewhere; but as these do not occur in our district, they need not be further described.

For twenty years Murchison's theory dominated over Nicol's, with scarcely a dissentient voice. The brave old professor maintained to the end, against the geological world, opinions to which, while seemingly less probable, he had been led both by years of unusually careful examination of the whole field, which he knew better than any, and by general considerations regarding metamorphism and other matters affecting these ancient rocks; while his opponents were so confident of their position, that Geikie, in his "Life of Murchison," headed one of his chapters "The Geological Conquest of the Highlands." But in 1878, Murchison's conclusions began to be vigorously assailed, the attack being led by Dr Henry Hicks,[8] and has been strenuously maintained by him and other eminent geologists, of London, such as Bonney, Huddleston, Callaway, Heddle, Lapworth, Etheridge, Judd, and many others. These have written numerous papers advocating conclusions more or less adverse to those of Murchison, and agreeing in the main with those of Nicol.

Even Geikie has had to abandon his early position, and declare against the theory of his former chief. In a remarkable declaration, published in Nature of November 13, 1884, prefacing a paper on "The Geology of North-West Sutherland," by the two Survey geologists Peach and Horne, Geikie made a brave and honourable retractation of these opinions, which he had so long and so ably advocated with Murchison. He there declares: "With every desire to follow the interpretation of my late chief, I criticised minutely each detail of the work upon the ground, but I found the evidence altogether overwhelming against the upward succession which Murchison believed to exist in Eriboll from the base of the Silurian strata into an upper conformable series of schists and gneisses." He found the same true all along the strike of these controverted rocks. "The clear coast sections of Eriboll have now taught me that the parallelism between the Silurian strata and the overlying schists is not due to conformable deposition." He traced the same kind of evidence southwards for more than ninety miles, and found it "as well marked above Loch Carron as it is at Loch Eriboll."

These "Eastern gneisses" not only frequently appear to be superposed upon the rocks beneath, but, as Geikie says, the parallelism of dip and strike between them and the rocks below them is so complete in some of the Ross-shire sections, that he asserts "had these sections been planned for the purposes of deception, they could not have been more skilfully devised." These Survey geologists explain these extraordinary phenomena by a system of "reversed faults" and "pushes from the east," by which the "Eastern rocks" have been driven westwards, in some cases ten miles, and are thus made to overlie the older rocks, through "prodigious terrestrial displacements, to which there is certainly no parallel in Britain,"--displacements which Nicol, against the evidence of his eyes, had insisted on as factors, nearly thirty years before.

Evidences of these dislocations are not so apparent round Loch Maree as elsewhere, especially near Loch Eriboll, but they are sufficiently marked round Kenlochewe as to appeal even to a non-scientific visitor. In Glen Cruaidh Choillie, at a point already noted, the "Logan Rock" is seen superposed right upon the Limestone up to the crest of the west side of the glen; according to Heddle, it also lies over it, with a slight hiatus, as far as Glen Fasagh. It is to be remembered, following recent conclusions, that this rock did not naturally have this position, but has been pushed violently into it by unparalleled "terrestrial displacements;" and that both this and the long series that form the eastern side of the glen are portions of the Hebridean again coming to the surface, and appearing in such mass and extent up Glen Dochartie and on to Achnasheen.

It would be out of place here to enter into the various opinions offered to explain the remarkable facts connected with these "Eastern rocks," their nature, and their relations to the western. The papers on Loch Maree are already very numerous, and opinions are still conflicting; and the Survey has not yet published its memoir on the Loch Maree district.

Dr Hicks, for example, held that these "Eastern rocks" generally are metamorphosed forms of the Hebridean reappearing, but that the Hebridean occurs at the junction of Glen "Logan" and Glen Dochartie, and that along the floor of the latter, the Hebridean, but not the limestone, is overlaid by certain "blue flags and sandstones, and argillaceous, quartziferous, and micaceous flaggy beds" in succession, up to the head of Glen Dochartie. These along with the Limestone he classes as Silurian, placing the underlying Quartzite with the Cambrian. At the head of Glen Dochartie, the Silurians disappear, he held, by a possible fault, and the Hebridean or "Pre-Cambrian" as he prefers to call it, again reasserts itself up to the summit of Ben Fyn and eastwards. He writes me, however (1886), that in the light of recent investigations, he is prepared to class the Glen Dochartie rocks with the Hebridean, like those at the head of the glen; though he would not yet affirm their exact place in the broad Pre-Cambrian series, which he has lately attempted to classify.

In his recent utterance, Geikie maintains that these "Eastern rocks" have undergone such intense alteration that their original characters have been in great measure effaced. Some of them are "unquestionably part of the Archæan gneiss," others are the western Quartzite, &c.; but traced eastwards, "the crystalline characters become more and more pronounced, until we cannot tell, at least from examination in the field, what the rocks may have originally been. They are now fine flaggy micaceous gneisses and mica-schists, which certainly could not have been developed out of any such Archæan (that is Hebridean) gneiss as is now visible to the west. Whether they consist in part of higher members of the Silurian series in a metamorphic condition remains to be seen."

* * * * *

We have now described the whole succession of rocks in our district, from Gairloch and Poolewe to the head of Glen Dochartie, and given some idea of the difficult problems they present and the theories offered for their solution. The succession up to the Limestone is accepted. The Hebridean is now variously designated "Pre-Cambrian;" and by Callaway, Geikie, and others, "Archæan;" the determination of Murchison as "Laurentian" being generally avoided. The Torridon Red is accepted as "Cambrian" by most, and recently by Geikie and his colleagues; though there are differences of opinion as to the precise period in that series to which they belong. The Quartzite and its associated beds are placed by Hicks and others with the "Cambrian;" and by others, including Geikie, with the Lower Silurian or Ordovician: but their position above the Torridon and below the Limestone is undoubted. The Limestone is conceded to lie above the Quartzite, but its nature and age are not yet settled, some holding it to be dolomitic and unlike the Durness limestone; Heddle for a time heading these, though now agreeing with the Survey; others, like Hicks, holding the limestones to be the same or, like the Survey geologists, so related as to form one system, which they call "Durness-Eriboll limestone." The "Logan rock" is variously interpreted,--some reckoning it to be igneous and intrusive; others, to be metamorphosed Hebridean; and others, to be granitic and syenitic. The "Eastern gneisses and schists" are still undetermined as to character, relations, or age, opinions being very various and conflicting; though there is a general agreement as to their belonging to some portion of the Hebridean series. Attempts have been made to classify the Hebridean, especially by Hicks,[9] but into this, space prevents our entering here.

My own opinion on this much controverted succession, during nigh twenty years' careful study of the whole field from Skye to Eriboll and more or less minute examination of the disputed sections, has been increasingly in favour of Nicol's general position. The proofs of Murchison's contention of the superposition and newer age of the "Eastern gneisses" I always regarded imperfect, as often expressed both privately and publicly. Nicol's general contentions as to the unlikelihood of highly metamorphic schistose and gneissic rocks, like the Eastern, being transformed, while older rocks remained so little affected as the Cambrian and others beneath, gained growing weight. Every fresh examination of the ground increased the probability of their apparent superposition being merely overfoldings of the western rocks. The displacements, the investigations of more recent observers have shewn to be much greater than all earlier students, including myself, ever imagined.

Great honour has lately been done Professor Nicol for his enlightened perception of the true solution of this difficult problem at so early a date, "against a phalanx of eminent geological authorities." Professor Judd, at the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen last year (1885), in reviewing this geological problem in a masterly address, justly observes, and in so doing felicitously expresses general opinion:--"Calmly reviewing, in the light of our present knowledge, the grand work accomplished single-handed by Nicol, I have no hesitation in asserting that, twenty-six years ago, he had mastered the great Highland problem in all its essential details." "The Murchisonian theory of Highland succession," he finally concludes, "is now, by general consent, abandoned."

C.--OTHER NOTEWORTHY GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA.

There are other noteworthy phenomena connected with the geology of Loch Maree deserving attention, which will be now shortly described:--

I. FAULTS.--Several faults have already been pointed out. The greatest, however, is that which runs parallel to Loch Maree itself, the loch lying in and along this huge fault. It extends from Loch Ewe, along Loch Maree and up through Glen Dochartie to its head, and so on eastwards. It runs parallel to the strike of the Hebridean gneiss, and has thrown down the rocks on the south side of Loch Maree by a south-west downthrow of considerable magnitude, as compared with the rocks on the north side of the lake. It has not, however, interfered with the strike of the rocks or their relations to each other, which remain the same on both sides of the fault. The formation of Loch Maree, which lies exactly in the line of this great fault, is due in some way, no doubt, to the presence of the fault at this place and in this direction. The existence of this fault is proved, among other facts, by the general want of symmetry between the rocks on the two sides of Loch Maree, and by the low horizon at which the Torridon lies in the islands of Loch Maree and round Talladale, as compared with that at which the Hebridean stands in Beinn Aridh Charr and Beinn Lair, and with its own height in Slioch.

The same remarkable faulting holds good of other lakes. Loch Assynt to the north, being in much the same position as Loch Maree to these controverted rocks, lies also in the line of another great fault; Loch Ness also runs in the line, and occupies the place of a stupendous crack in the rocks there, shewn by a great anticline which runs from the Moray Firth to Loch Linnhe, and which has also in some way given rise to the enormous hollow occupied by Loch Ness,--a hollow twice the depth of the German Ocean, being nearly a thousand feet deep, while the North Sea is nowhere deeper than five hundred. The great Loch Maree fault can be seen in Glen Dochartie, and is there exhibited on both sides of the glen, where the unsymmetrical relations of the rocks may be studied.

II. GLACIATION.--The phenomena of the Glacial Period are exceedingly well exhibited round Loch Maree. On the surfaces of the flat Torridon sandstone, at many places along the southern shores, especially on the higher parts of the road a little to the east of Talladale hotel, the scratchings are very good, distinct, and continuous, extending, on some of the slabs, for hundreds of feet in unbroken line. They run generally parallel to the longer axis of the lake, and prove the existence of an immense glacier that moved to the sea down the deep hollow now filled by its waters. The Stoss seite, or rubbed side, of the roches moutonnées is everywhere apparent, looking up the loch; which shows that the ice moved seawards, and pressed hard against the landward faces of all projecting rocks, while leaving their seaward faces, or lee sides, greatly untouched. This is very well seen on the islands and projecting capes in the loch itself, especially where the lake narrows at its western extremity, and markedly, on the east front and north face of the splendid Craig Tollie opposite Inveran, along and above water-level. There the smoothing, grooving, and scratching are remarkably good, and worth going far to see. The visitor should make a special point to see them also on the flat surfaces of the red sandstone to the west of Talladale, already mentioned. At both these places, the lateral pressure of the ice is also very well shewn, as well as, at not a few points, its upward pressure on projecting rocks, the under side of which are well glaciated. This glaciation also extends all the way down the river Ewe and out to sea, and is exhibited at many places.

The course of the ice stream has undergone several deflections, arising chiefly from the nature of the ground. Between Gairloch and Loch Ewe it has passed increasingly from north to south, as exceedingly well seen on certain exposed rock surfaces above and to the west of the road between Gairloch and Poolewe. There the glacier movement seems to have been from Loch Ewe to Gairloch, showing that the ice stream from Loch Maree had probably expanded fan-wise on its exit from the narrow glen near Inveran, where its pressure had been greatest and where its effects are so well shewn.

Another striking evidence of glacial work, and a telling proof of the existence of this mighty glacier, should be visited. This is the series of lateral moraines that lie between Loch Ewe and Loch Gruinard, more or less parallel to their coasts. They are cut across by the high road at its most elevated portion, and run interruptedly out to sea, along the peninsula between these lochs. They consist of irregular lines, more or less continuous, of rough débris, enclosing angular and sub-angular stones, and they mark the later boundaries of the ice-sheet which filled Loch Ewe from side to side, flowing over Eilean Ewe, out to the Minch, and glaciating the rock faces in its course, as well seen at many points between Poolewe and Inverasdale on the south, and between Poolewe and Aultbea on the north. No glacier in Scotland is more proved than the great Loch Maree glacier. The ice markings near Udrigil to the north of Loch Ewe, and beyond Inverasdale on the south, are very good, on the well-preserving red sandstone that forms these bounding rocky peninsulas. Good scratches also occur along the road between Talladale and Gairloch. At one time Craig Tollie itself had been an immense roche moutonnée, over which the ice sheet, here at least fifteen hundred feet thick, had triumphantly ridden.

Still another evidence of glaciation is the number of "Carried Blocks" everywhere seen, borne by the ice sheet, and dropped far from their parent rocks in the line of the ice movement. At many points, they are finely perched on conspicuous elevations, and often on the summit of the higher peaks, as well exhibited on the road between Gairloch and Poolewe, and, indeed, all over the district. But nowhere are they shown in such multitude as round the Fionn Loch, and especially from a low eminence near the stable at the foot of the loch, where they are scattered over the whole surface in surprising abundance, and look like sheep or goats in lines along the ridges, gazing on the rare intruder.

A most interesting feature connected with the glaciation of the district is the probable existence of a glacial period before the Torridon sandstone was laid down upon the Hebridean gneiss! As suggested by Archibald Geikie (Nature, 26th August 1880), there are evidences of ice action on the Hebridean floor on which the Torridon conglomerates were deposited, and the idea is coincided in by Dr Hicks, who also pleads for the existence of pre-Cambrian volcanoes, as well as glaciers, as exhibited round Loch Maree. Dr Hicks thinks that the immense amount of broken rocky matter necessary to form the Cambrian conglomerates was probably produced in part by pre-Cambrian glaciers, combined with sea action (Geolog. Mag., Nov. 1880).

III. DENUDATION.--One of the most striking geological features of the district is the amount of denudation to which the rocks have been subjected. Slioch itself is a splendid monument of denudation, standing, as it does, a gigantic cone, in isolated grandeur, the rocks that once reached the same altitude around him having been swept off by gigantic denuding forces, of which we have now little conception. The same denuding processes have been at work, as already remarked, on the Torridon peaks round Loch Torridon and Loch Inver. But Scotland has been subjected to extraordinary denuding forces all over its surface, from John o' Groats to Galloway; such peaks remaining as wonderful monuments both of what once existed and of what has been swept away. Other remarkable examples of denudation are given in this work. Such forces have been active since the birth of time.

IV. ROCK JUNCTIONS.--In the district, there are several noteworthy junctions of the rocks of the great geological epochs deserving examination.

One has already been mentioned, that on the shore near the Free church at Gairloch, between the Torridon and the Cambrian, strikingly clear and impressive from the perfect unconformability between the two series, and their extraordinary dissimilarity in character. The composition of the breccia may here be easily examined, from its wave-worn bareness, and the fact perceived that it has been formed of pieces of the Hebridean floor immediately beneath, with foreign matters included.

Another equally remarkable junction of the same two systems, hitherto unnoticed, occurs three miles from this one, across the Gairloch, at a beautiful spot called Shieldaig of Gairloch. Just before descending on the mansion, the road enters a narrow pass, having a steep cliff on the right. This precipice consists, in the lower portion, of the Hebridean, and in the upper, of Torridon conglomerate. The line of union, halfway up the cliff, is clear from the road, and on reaching it, you can insert your hand between the two systems and crawl along their junction. The components of the conglomerate are here much more rounded than at Gairloch. This Torridon forms an isolated patch, on both sides of the road, about a quarter of a mile in length and two or three hundred yards in breadth. It is eminently worth a visit, and is easily reached by the pedestrian.

Another striking junction, also undescribed and little known, occurs between the road and the sea, about a mile from Poolewe, not far from Tournaig. There, in a peat bog, an isolated patch of Hebridean rises to the surface, through the Torridon, which surrounds it. It is not more than three or four hundred square yards in area, and is the only gneiss in the broad expanse of Torridon sandstone, which lies on this side of Loch Ewe between Inveran and Greenstone Point. A fine conglomerate of the Torridon firmly adheres to the surface of the rough gneiss, on the outer edges of the bare Hebridean, and fills up its irregularities in a telling way.

Another junction of the same rocks occurs on a small cape formed of gneiss, called Craig an t' Shabhail, which juts into Loch Maree about a hundred yards from Inveran. There a still finer conglomerate is seen, in a thin hard layer, sticking to the surface of the gneiss, evidently the tenacious remnants of a thick bed that has been scraped off by the powerful denuding forces once so active in this region.

Another capital very unconformable junction between the gneiss and the conglomerate is found on Loch Torridon, where the isolated patch of Hebridean that towers into Alligin crosses the loch and forms its Narrows. In the bed of a burn, not far from the school, and in a ridge above it, the two rocks may be easily traced in contact for a considerable distance, and the composition of the brecciated conglomerate easily examined. Similar junctions exist on both sides of this loch at the Narrows, some of them near Shieldaig of Applecross being very good,--all examined by me many years ago.

Between Gairloch and Poolewe, in a hollow to the west, just before the road rises to its summit level, a detached mass of Torridon sandstone, referred to elsewhere, may be easily observed by the traveller. It forms a thick deposit, with a bold precipitous front facing the south and east, the horizontally bedded red sandstone contrasting well with the grey gneiss that surrounds and underlies it. It also bears well-marked traces of the lateral pressure of ice on its sides next the road.

V. THE VALLEY OF THE HUNDRED HILLS.--No geologist or traveller should miss traversing the picturesque road between Kenlochewe and Loch Torridon, for its wonderful scenery of unsurpassed grandeur and loneliness, and its splendid exhibitions of the Torridon sandstone, crested by the contrasting pale Quartzite, as seen in Beinn Eay, the Grey Heads, and Liathgach. No sea loch in the Highlands is encircled by such mountain masses, mighty, mural, precipitous, and profoundly impressive.

About halfway to Torridon, on the left hand, the eye is arrested by an extraordinary, if not unique, assemblage of hillocks, closely set along the bottom of a glen which opens on the road. These are generally round and peaked, and consist of loose stony débris. They caught the eyes of the observing Celts of old, who named the place the Coire Cheud Cnoc, the "Corrie of a Hundred Hillocks." The explanation of their number and character seems not far to seek. It will be observed that, opposite this valley, on the right, lies the steep narrow glen that separates Liathgach from Beinn Eay. Out of this has issued an immense glacier, as proved by the abundant scratches that point into it, which pushed its ice right across the strath we are in, against the hills on the other side and up into the valley with the hillocks. As is well known, the surface of a glacier is traversed by numerous runnels, which gush over its icy front, bearing with them the débris that constantly falls on the glacier from its enclosing walls. These streamlets thus deposit a series of conical hummocks of this débris, which gradually cover the ground as the ice retreats, similar to those in the corrie in question. Examples of such glacial hillocks may be found, by the uninitiated, in the sketches of Norwegian glaciers in Campbell's "Frost and Fire." On the Liathgach glacier, the amount of detritus would be unusually large, from the steepness of the hillsides and the constant waste of the sandstone, and still more, from the superabundant débris of the rapidly disintegrating Quartzite in the precipitous Beinn Eay.

VI. CURIOUS IMPRESSIONS ON TORRIDON SANDSTONE NEAR TALLADALE.--Near Loch Maree Hotel, the stream that forms the Victoria Falls runs over Torridon sandstone. A short distance above the bridge which carries the Gairloch highway over its waters, about three or four hundred yards above the falls, and just beside the last of a succession of lesser falls, on the left bank of the stream, there exists a flat bed of sandstone, some sixteen feet square, on which occur certain remarkable impressions which deserve attention. These were first noticed by the late Mr Walter Carruthers of the Inverness Courier, who directed my attention to them, and published some account of them, along with observations made by me regarding them (July 1, 1880), of which the following is a summary:--

The most distinct of the impressions consists of two continuous flat bands side by side, 1¼ to 1½ inch broad and about a quarter of an inch deep, running quite straight across the flat layers of sandstone in situ, and perfectly distinct for sixteen feet, disappearing on the west side under the superincumbent rock, and broken only where portions of the sandstone have been weathered out. In some places, a third line runs alongside, but this is much less distinct and persistent. The double band resembles nothing more nearly than the hollow impression that would be left by double bars of iron neatly inserted in the rock for clasping some structure on it, if the iron were subsequently removed. The bands, when narrowly looked into, consist of very fine, close, hair-lines, continuous and parallel to their sides, resembling very minute striæ left by glaciation, and they look as if caused by some object drawn along the original red sand, before it became the present indurated rock.

A similar double line runs parallel to this one, about two feet lower down, seven feet long; and a third parallel double line occurs on the upper side, three feet long,--both of the same breadth as the first. Besides those pointed out by Mr Carruthers, which occur on the same flat of sandstone, other lines exist farther down, on the other side of the pool below this rocky flat, on a similar bed of sandstone, part of the same layer,--one three feet in length, another six feet, running more or less parallel to those above. Indications of others may also be seen, and, no doubt, several more may be discovered on more careful examination.

What they are I can scarcely even surmise, having seen nothing of the same kind elsewhere. They do suggest the possibility of their being the indentations of the caudal appendage of some huge creature, similar to the hollow tail lines between the footprints on the sandstone at Tarbatness and along the shores of Morayshire,--a suggestion strengthened by the fact of the existence, on both sides of the line, of numerous rounded hollow marks, very like the footprints on these reptiliferous rocks, occuring, as in them, at intervals. But the continuous even breadth and square section of the lines would seem to render this impossible. They might be the depressions left on the soft sand by the hinder portions of the shell of some huge crustacean,--a more likely cause, rendered more probable by the existence of very good ripple marks on the same sandstone, in the same and neighbouring layers. The striæ-like lines of which the grooves consist would seem to point to some moving agent, organic or physical. They may, however, be the casts or impressions of some great land reed or sea fucoid, the hair-lines being the marks of the fine flutings on its stem or the parallel veins of its leaves. It would be desirable to have the superincumbent layer of rock carefully removed where the bands in question disappear under the upper rock, in order to shed more light on the nature of the strange marks. Whatever they are, they certainly deserve the careful attention of geologists. Dr Heddle, who has examined them since 1880, is of opinion that they are not in any way connected with organisms, but are due to mineralogical and structural causes, but he has not yet published his views.

VII. THE FIONN AND DUBH LOCH.--This double loch is remarkable, and eminently worth visiting, not only for its scenery, elsewhere described, but also for its geology. Both lakes are enclosed in Hebridean gneiss, which here very powerfully exhibits its usual characteristics, reaching its highest in the picturesque peak of Coire Chaoruinn, above the centre of the loch. The Torridon sandstone appears on Ruadh Stac or Red Peak, which bears an appropriate title, and possibly on the very crown of the Maiden. The pale rock which catches the eye from far on the front of Craig an Dubh Loch, at the head of the Fionn Loch, is a remarkable species of granite, known by the French term Pegmatite, which consists of quartz and felspar, often with small quantities of silvery mica. It abounds in the Hebridean gneiss in other parts of the west coast, but in our district, it is comparatively little developed except at the Dubh Loch, where it also appears on the Maiden's shoulders, and on Carn Bhan or the White Cairn, to which it gives name. It should be examined on the great cliff of Craig an Dubh Loch, where it traverses its face and head in serpentine lines and masses, like injected lava. The rare mineral epidote is also found here, and near the top of Beinn a Chaisgean, on the north shore of the lake.

The smaller upper part of the loch is almost entirely separated from the lower, and forms an Alpine chamber, strongly contrasting with the rest in form, feature, colour, and surroundings, which has given rise to its most appropriate name of the Dubh or Black Loch. This loch is an excellent example--none better--of a moraine-dammed lake, being held in by an uncommonly pronounced moraine, which marks the last boundary of the ancient glacier that filled its deep pot. This moraine begins on the left side, under the grand cliff of Craig an Dubh Loch, curves finely round the lower end of the Dubh Loch, crosses the loch to the other side, forming in its passage the narrow waist that separates the two lakes, and then runs along two-thirds of the Dubh Loch till it gets lost in the general rubbish of the hills, the path to Loch Broom which crosses the causeway taking advantage of its terraced line for some distance. The moraine consists of a long circular ridge of loose débris, enclosing large protruding blocks, having a general height of from twenty to thirty feet, with steep sides, like a kaim or esker, and considerable breadth. It is quite continuous, except for three hundred yards at the union of the lakes, where it has been cut through to water-level, but descends so little below the surface that stepping-stones, forming a causeway, are carried across the strait. On the north side, the moraine widens greatly, and encloses a lochan, beyond which rises an isolated steep hill, Carn na Paite, some three hundred feet high, which has formed a huge roche moutonnée. Over this the ice of the old glacier has passed, and smoothed it, the same ice having crushed and striated the steep front of Craig an Dubh Loch, on the other side of the glen.

Other telling proofs are apparent all round of the more general glaciation of Scotland, when it was a veritable Greenland, with a huge ice sheet enveloping mountain and glen, in the numerous perched blocks placed in most striking positions. One large boulder is set right on the very head of Scuir a Laocainn. Others crest the surface of Carn Bhan and the Maiden, and give the sky-line of their summits the appearance of a broken-toothed saw, so numerous are these deposits of the great ice sheet of the severer Glacial Period. The remarkable gathering of blocks seen from the lower end of Fionn Loch has already been noted, and the height near the stable there should certainly be climbed to view them. The jutting capes and islands, as well as many exposed surfaces on the way back to Poolewe, all tell the same tale.

VIII. THE TRIAS AT LOCH GRUINARD.--Another series of rocks--the comparatively recent Trias--may be seen by the traveller not far from Loch Maree, on Loch Gruinard, some miles to the north of the moraines already described. On the way to Aultbea, the road rises to a considerable height above Loch Ewe, and overlooks its waters. Here, from the Torridon sandstone, a magnificent view may be had of the whole remarkable country, with its striking scenery and interesting geology, exhibited at a glance. In front, stretches a rolling plateau of the bare Hebridean gneiss, which attains its greatest altitude in the graceful Maiden and her powerful fellows at the head of the Fionn Loch, and in the pointed Beinn Aridh Charr, Beinn Lair, and Beinn Alligin. Beyond, rise the dark domes of the Torridon Red, in Slioch and his compeers; and then the bright peaks of the Quartzite, in the shining Beinn Eay and other mountains, the Quartzite being seen finely cresting masses of the lower red sandstone. Behind these, stretch the undulating hills of the Eastern gneiss far into the background of the wonderful picture.

On the shore of Loch Gruinard, to the east and west of where the road touches the loch, are found two isolated patches of the Lower Trias, the lowest of the Mesozoic series, and the second above the Carboniferous. This Trias is the second rarest series in the Hebrides,--rarer than the next strata, the Lias and Oolite of Skye, Mull and Brora, and than even the Cretaceous or Chalk, on the shores of Mull and Morven. The only rarer, if not unique, rock in the Hebrides is the one patch of Carboniferous on the tide line of Ardtornish in Morven, opposite Oban.

The Trias here consists chiefly of a thick-bedded sandstone of uncommon redness, which recalls the bright tints of the Old Red of Fochabers and the Permian of Dumfries. It is well exhibited in cliffs and reefs along the shore, by breccias and conglomerates, thin shales, yellow and greenish sandstones and flags, and concretionary limestone.

These Triassic rocks extend for about three miles, from Sand, on the east, to a point beyond Udrigil House, on the west. They are continuous, except near Udrigil, where the Torridon sandstone that encloses them comes to the surface. They are reckoned to be about a thousand feet thick. No fossils have as yet been found in them, but their age has otherwise been satisfactorily determined.

These rocks are extraordinarily interesting. They are the most northerly examples of the Secondary Geological Period on the west coast, and they form an isolated fragment of the deposits of this period, which once extended from Gruinard to the Ross of Mull to a depth of over a thousand feet, and which have been entirely swept away by enormous denuding forces, except at a few scattered points. Their protection has, in all cases, except at Gruinard, been due to being covered by volcanic outbursts on the grandest scale, which took place in the late Tertiary Period, and mainly formed the beautiful islands of Skye and Mull. At Gruinard, they were preserved from destruction by enormous faulting, by which they were dropped down at least a thousand feet into the Torridon Red. They are represented on the east coast of Sutherland, and, according to Professor Judd, by the famous reptiliferous sandstones of Elgin.[10]

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X. MINERALS OF GAIRLOCH

By Professor W. IVISON MACADAM, F.C.S., F.I.C., M.M.S., &c., Edinburgh.

The following minerals were obtained in the localities mentioned, but the list is very incomplete. Time has not permitted of analyses being made of many samples, but such are now under examination, and will be available for a further edition of this work:--

Agalmatolite--Black Rock, Tollie. Albite feldspar--Loch Fionn. Agaric limestone--Coppachy. Agate--Tollie Rock. Barytes--Black Rock, Tollie. Biotite--Loch Fionn. Calcite--Black Rock, Tollie, &c. Chalcedony--Glen Logan, &c. Chalcopyrite--Coppachy. Chlorite--Loch Gruinard, &c. Dolomite--Glen Logan, Slioch, &c. Epidote--Loch Fionn, Tollie Rock. Galenite--Glen Logan limestone. Garnet--Loch Fionn. Heliotrope, or Bloodstone--Glen Logan, &c. Hornblende--Loch Gruinard, Loch Fionn, &c. Limestone (Massive)--Glen Logan, &c. Limonite (Bog iron ore)--South Erradale, &c. &c. Marcasite--Glen Logan, Coppachy, &c. Muscovite--Loch Fionn, &c. Oligoclase feldspar--Loch Fionn, &c. &c. Pyrite--Glen Logan, Coppachy, &c. Pyrolusite (Dendritic markings)--Loch Fionn. Quartz--Common. Quartzite (common)--Glen Logan, &c. Rock crystal--Black Rock, Tollie (small crystals). Serpentine--Black Rock, Tollie. Smoke quartz--Tollie Rock.

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IV. GUIDE TO GAIRLOCH AND LOCH MAREE

CHAPTER PAGE I. Gairloch of the Present Day 293 II. Approaches and Roads 299 III. Achnasheen to Kenlochewe 301 IV. Kenlochewe to Talladale 305 V. Talladale to the Gairloch Hotel 308 VI. The Gairloch Hotel to Poolewe 312 VII. Poolewe to Aultbea 318 VIII. Excursions from Kenlochewe 321 IX. Excursions from Talladale 326 X. Excursions from Gairloch 327 XI. Excursions from Poolewe 332 XII. Excursions from Aultbea 337 XIII. Excursions by Steamer on Loch Maree 340 XIV. The Fionn Loch and its Dubh Loch 349 XV. Loch Gruinard 355 XVI. Angling in Sea Lochs 359 XVII. Angling in Loch Maree 361 XVIII. Angling in Fresh-water Lochs 363 XIX. Salmon Angling 366 XX. Deer Forests and Grouse Shooting 372

NOTE.

In addition to the references to preceding Chapters given in this Part, the reader is recommended to consult the Index for other references to pages where the various places and persons noticed have been previously mentioned.

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I. GAIRLOCH OF THE PRESENT DAY

There is no town, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, in the parish of Gairloch, and there is no village that, properly speaking, bears the name of Gairloch. Of villages or townships there are about thirty-four. They contain the greater part of the population of the parish, which according to the census of 1881 numbered 4594. Many of these villages are so small that in the lowlands they would only be termed hamlets. They have no separate legal existence as villages or townships; but in those which are townships there is a bond of union, in so far as the crofter inhabitants have their hill pasture in common, and club together for the purpose of herding their cattle and sheep thereon.

All these villages are on the sea coast except the five first named. They are as follows:--

Near the head of Loch Maree--Kenlochewe.

On the north-east side of Loch Maree--Coppachy, Innis Ghlas, and Fuirneis.

On the south-west side of Loch Maree--Talladale.

At the south-west extremity of the parish--Diabaig (part of).

On the south or south-west side of Gairloch (the sea loch)--South Erradale, Openham (or Opinan), Port Henderson, Bad a Chrotha (Badachro), and Charlestown.

On the north side of Gairloch--Gairloch (the hotel, Free church, &c.), Achtercairn, Strath (including Smithstown, Upper and Lower Mioll, and Lonmor), Sand (or Big Sand), North Erradale, and Melvaig.

On the west side of Loch Ewe--Cove, Meallan na Ghamhna (Stirkhill), Inverasdale (including Midtown, Brae, Coast, and Firemore), Naast, and Poolewe (including Londubh).

On the east side of Loch Ewe--Aultbea (including Tighnafaoilinn), Badfearn, Buaile na luib, Ormiscaig, Mellon Charles, and Slaggan.

On the west side of the Bay of Gruinard--Oban, Mellon Udrigil, Laide, Sand, First Coast, and Second Coast.

There are the following churches in the parish of Gairloch:--

Of the Church of Scotland (Established) at--

(1) Gairloch, the parish church; (2) Poolewe, the church of the quoad sacra (or ecclesiastical) parish of Poolewe.

Of the Free Church of Scotland at--

(1) Kenlochewe; (2) Gairloch; (3) Poolewe (meeting-house); (4) Aultbea; (5) North Erradale (meeting-house); and (6) Opinan (mission church).

Gairloch is one undivided civil parish, but has been divided for ecclesiastical purposes by the erection of Poolewe into a quoad sacra (or ecclesiastical) parish.

The minister of the parish of Gairloch is the Rev. Duncan S. Mackenzie, of the manse at Strath of Gairloch, and he officiates at the parish church at Gairloch.

The minister of the Poolewe quoad sacra parish is incapacitated, and his duties are performed by an assistant-minister. The quoad sacra parish of Poolewe includes the west side of Loch Ewe, the east side of Loch Maree, the River Ewe, and Loch Ewe, and all places in Gairloch parish lying to the east of Loch Ewe. It extends along the north-east side of Loch Maree as far as Fuirneis, Letterewe. The rest of the parish of Gairloch is attached to the old parish church of Gairloch. Gairloch is in the Presbytery of Loch Carron and Synod of Glenelg.

There are two Free Church ministers, viz., the Rev. John Baillie, who officiates at the Gairloch Free church, and at Opinan and North Erradale, and who resides at the Gairloch Free Church manse; and the Rev. Ronald Dingwall, who officiates at the Aultbea and Poolewe Free churches, and resides at the Aultbea Free manse. Mr Baillie has the assistance of Mr John Mackenzie, of Melvaig, as catechist; and Mr Dingwall is assisted by Mr William Urquhart, of Cove, as catechist. A catechist can conduct ordinary services, just as a minister can. Mr Dingwall also officiates occasionally in a room in the old schoolhouse at Inverasdale, and in the caves at Cove and Sand, as well as in rooms at Mellon Udrigil and Slaggan.

The parishes or districts attached to the Free churches, are the same as those of the Established churches.

A Free Church minister is provided at intervals, as can be arranged, for the church at Kenlochewe, but there is no manse.

There are ten and a half schools in the parish of Gairloch, all conducted by certificated teachers. They are situated at Kenlochewe, Achtercairn, Opinan, Big Sand, Melvaig, Poolewe, Inverasdale, Buaile na luib, Laide, Mellon Udrigil, and Diabaig, where the school is shared with the parish of Applecross.

The School Board of Gairloch has the management of these schools, and consists of nine members, who meet periodically at Poolewe, with the Rev. John Baillie as chairman. Mr John Ross, of Strath, and Mr Mackenzie, of the post-office, Aultbea, are the officers appointed by the School Board for looking after the attendance of the children.

Mr James Mackintosh, postmaster, Poolewe, who is clerk of the School Board, has furnished me with the following information regarding the ten principal schools in Gairloch relating to the year 1884:--

Numbers of Scholars In average School. On the Rolls. attendance.

Kenlochewe 35 27 Opinan 53 36 Achtercairn 107 55 Sand 40 26 Melvaig 60 51 Inverasdale 89 66 Poolewe 34 21 Buaile na luib 97 63 Laide 55 33 Mellon Udrigil 55 30 --- --- Totals 625 408

Besides the above about twenty Gairloch children attend the school at Diabaig.

The following are the present teachers of the ten schools:--Kenlochewe, Miss Maclean; Opinan, Mr A. Nicolson; Achtercairn, Mr M. Lamont; Sand, Mr J. Mackenzie; Melvaig, Mr J. MacRae; Inverasdale, Mr J. Maclennan; Poolewe, Miss Ferguson; Buaile na luib, Mr H. Murray; Laide, Mr H. Macleod; Mellon Udrigil, Miss Johanna Mackenzie.

Mr Mackintosh tells me that the number of scholars in all the school districts of Gairloch is decreasing, with the exception of Achtercairn, and perhaps Inverasdale. At the commencement of the Education Act in Gairloch, the number of children of school age for whom accommodation was then provided was 850.

There are also what are termed side-schools at Letterewe and Slaggan, for a few children at each of those places whose homes are at a considerable distance from any board school. The school-rate is one shilling and sixpence in the pound.

Those who are acquainted with the working of schools in the south, will consider the average attendance at the Gairloch schools rather meagre as compared with the numbers on the rolls; but allowance must be made for the great distances between the homes of the children and the schools, for the rough roads or tracks some of the children have to travel, and for the stormy weather, especially in winter.

Notwithstanding these difficulties several of the teachers succeed in passing 98 per cent. of the scholars they present at the annual examinations by Her Majesty's inspectors, and the average percentage of passes is about 80 per cent.

Mr Malcolm Lamont, Achtercairn, is registrar of births, deaths, and marriages for the parish of Gairloch.

Pauperism is too prevalent in the West Highlands. There are on the Gairloch roll of paupers one hundred and thirty-eight persons receiving parochial relief, viz., forty-six males and ninety-two females, besides fifty-three dependants, such as children, who are relieved along with the paupers. There are also six lunatics boarded at home, and nine in the joint-asylum at Inverness. The other paupers are relieved at home. The total outlay on these paupers, dependants, and lunatics was £1172. 14s. 10d. for the year ended Whitsunday 1886. The poor-rate is one shilling and tenpence in the pound, half of which is paid by the proprietor and half by the tenant. The poor-rate is administered by the Parochial Board, which includes the proprietors of the parish or their representatives and certain elected members. Mr Mackintosh is the inspector of poor for the parish, and has kindly given me the particulars here stated. Dr F. A. M'Ewen, who resides at Moss Bank, Poolewe, is the only general practitioner in the parish. He receives a fixed salary for medical attendance on the paupers of the parish. He is a duly qualified surgeon and physician. Dr Robertson is likewise a registered medical practitioner.

There is one highroad in the parish, viz., that which leads from Achnasheen, down Glen Dochartie, past Kenlochewe and Talladale, on to Gairloch, and thence forward to Poolewe and Aultbea, where it terminates. It has a branch from Kenlochewe towards Torridon. It is a county road, and is entirely maintained by the county, the cost being defrayed by an assessment averaging about fivepence in the pound. This road is generally kept in fair order by the local contractor. All other roads are private estate roads, maintained by the proprietors, with certain contributions from their tenants.

There are but two policemen in the parish, the one stationed at Achtercairn, the other at Aultbea. There is a lock-up with two cells at Achtercairn. There is little crime in Gairloch. The few offences are due either to the temporary presence of workpeople from other places, or to the too free use of the ardent spirits obtained at the licensed houses.

Several justices of the peace reside in Gairloch parish, but they seldom hold courts. When they have business they meet at Poolewe. Ordinary misdemeanours are tried by the sheriff at Dingwall.

There are six licensed houses in the parish, viz., the hotels or inns at Kenlochewe, Talladale (the Loch Maree Hotel), Gairloch, Poolewe, and Aultbea, and the small public-house at Cadha Beag in Fisherfield Bay, at the northern extremity of the parish. The hotels are described in their places in the Guide. The license to Luibmhor inn has been discontinued.

There is a daily post, conveyed by Mr M'Iver's mail-car, from Achnasheen to Gairloch, and thence, by a smaller mail-car, also daily, to Poolewe and Aultbea. Letters are conveyed by runners three days a week to the villages on the north and south sides of the Bay of Gairloch and on the west side of Loch Ewe. There is also a runner who takes the post-bags three days a week (in winter, only two days a week) to the villages between Aultbea and Gruinard. Mr M'Iver's mail-cars leave and collect post-bags and parcels at all the villages and places along the line of the county road.

The telegraph to Stornoway runs alongside of the county road to Poolewe, and thence for six miles along the shore of Loch Ewe to Firemore, where it becomes submarine. There is a supplemental wire serving Kenlochewe, Talladale, and Gairloch, to and from which places, as well as to and from Poolewe, telegrams may be regularly transmitted.

The carrier of Messrs Wordie, of Edinburgh, conveys goods from Achnasheen to Kenlochewe and Torridon in the first half of each week, and from Achnasheen to Gairloch and intermediate places in the second half of each week.

The bank at Gairloch, a branch of the Caledonian Bank, is a substantial building, a little to the north of Charlestown, and nearly a mile from the Gairloch Hotel. Mr Alexander Burgess is the manager.

There are cattle markets held twice a year at Gairloch and Aultbea, and once a year at Kenlochewe and Tollie; they are of little more than local importance.

One or two members of the preventive service are stationed at Gairloch; their chief work is to detect illicit distillation.

Mr David Macbrayne, of Glasgow, provides a service of steamers on the west coast. One of his large steamers, with cargo and passengers, calls every Saturday at Gairloch, Poolewe, and Aultbea. In summer there is a regular service of swift steamers to or from Oban, and to and from Portree in Skye.

Mr Hornsby's little steamer the Mabel plies on Loch Maree during the summer months.

Full particulars of these steamers are to be had at the hotels; and Mr Alexander Burgess of the bank, who is agent for Mr Macbrayne, is always ready to supply every information.

A company of rifle volunteers was organised by Mr Alexander Burgess (who was the first lieutenant) in 1867, and is still in a flourishing condition. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie was captain for nearly fifteen years, and was succeeded in the command by Mr Burgess, who, on his retirement from the corps in 1883, was permitted, after his long service of sixteen years, to retain his rank of captain. The present officers are, the writer as captain, and Mr Malcolm Lamont and Mr Anthony MacClymont as lieutenants. The sergeants are as follows:--Colour-Sergeant Alexander Macpherson, Opinan; Sergeant Roderick Macintyre, Strath; Sergeant John Maclennan, Inverasdale; and Sergeant Alexander Bain, Lonmor. The corps includes a number of fine tall men; the right-hand man stands six feet four inches in his stockings, and a number of the rank and file are fully six feet in height. The pipers are Mr A. Mackenzie, Mr W. Maclennan, and Mr W. Boa. The company is worked in three separate sections, viz., the headquarters section at Achtercairn, the "south-side" section at Opinan, and the Poolewe section. The sections meet occasionally for combined drill during the spring months. The disused schoolhouse at Achtercairn has been granted by Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, at a nominal rent, for an armoury and drill-hall. There is a good drill-shed at Opinan, and the Poolewe Public Hall is hired for drills there. There are rifle ranges at each of the three centres. Each section has its annual shooting competition, the prizes being mostly provided by subscription, to which the gentlemen in the neighbourhood handsomely contribute. Besides money prizes, there are an antique challenge cup presented by Mr Bateson of Shieldaig, and a challenge cross given by Mrs Burgess, which are competed for periodically.

The principal houses in the parish of Gairloch are the Kenlochewe Lodge, Flowerdale House, Shieldaig Lodge, Pool House, Inverewe House, Tournaig, Drumchork House, Inveran, Ardlair House, and Letterewe House. Flowerdale House is occupied part of the year by Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch. It was built in 1738 by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Bart., the ninth laird of Gairloch; it is an interesting old house, and has a curious façade (see frontispiece). Its gardens contain some plants which exemplify the general mildness of the west coast winters. Flowerdale is usually let with shootings for the shooting season, from 12th August till the end of October. Inverewe House is the beautiful residence of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie, situated in the north corner of the bay at the head of Loch Ewe. It is also usually let for the shooting season, and sometimes, with angling, for the spring and summer. Kenlochewe, Shieldaig, and Drumchork are also shooting-lodges, but Mr C. E. Johnston lives at Drumchork House during a greater part of the year than the ordinary shooting season. The Dowager Lady Mackenzie of Gairloch resides at Tournaig; and the writer at Inveran. Mr and Mrs Liot Bankes have erected a spacious mansion, with extremely lovely prospects, at Ardlair, beneath the cliffs of Beinn Aridh Charr. Mr Charles Perkins, the lessee of the Fisherfield deer forest, has enlarged the old house at Letterewe, where he resides during the shooting season, and he has erected a shooting-lodge near the head of the Fionn Loch. Sir Thomas Edwards Moss, Bart., is the lessee of Pool House, at Poolewe, which has been enlarged, and he rents shootings along with it.

Of other houses mention may be made of Kerrysdale, an old house, which has been frequently occupied by a younger brother or by a son of the laird of Gairloch. There is a roomy house at Carn Dearg, about three miles from the Gairloch Hotel. It was erected by Mr George Corson, of Leeds, and commands a fine view of the bay of Gairloch and the Minch with its islands. It is remarkable for its high-pitched and red-tiled roof. The old house on Isle Ewe is occupied by Mr William Reid, the farmer. The farmhouse at Slatadale is a modern building. The Established Church manses at Gairloch and Poolewe, and the Free Church manses at Gairloch and Aultbea, are substantial houses.

There is at Poolewe a building used as a public hall. It comprises a reading and recreation room, which is available for meetings, and though comparatively small is sufficient for the population. It was opened on 12th February 1884 by a meeting, at which Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie presided. It contains accommodation for a caretaker, and it is intended to provide an additional recreation room. The profits, if any, of this book are to be devoted to this little institution.

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II. APPROACHES AND ROADS

There are four approaches to Gairloch by road.

1. FROM ACHNASHEEN.

This is indeed the mode of entering Gairloch by road most generally adopted. The traveller usually reaches Achnasheen by rail. No time-tables will be given in this book. Trains, steamers, and mail-cars run at different times, and those times are liable to continual variations. The traveller should consult the printed time-bills issued from time to time, and which may always be seen at the hotels. The route from Achnasheen is described in our next chapter. It has many advantages. It avoids the uncertainties of a sea-voyage, and is worked in connection with the trains on the Highland Railway.

2. FROM LOCH CARRON.

A new road has been made from Achnashellach, leading from the main Loch Carron road through the Coulin forest, past Loch Coulin, to Kenlochewe. This road is strictly private. It passes through magnificent scenery, but as it is not available to the ordinary tourist it is not necessary to describe it here.

3. FROM LOCH TORRIDON.

There is a road from Loch Torridon (described in Part IV., chap. viii.) by which Kenlochewe may be reached. This road enters Gairloch parish about six miles from Kenlochewe. Drive from Strathcarron to Shieldaig of Applecross, where there is a humble inn, and proceed thence on foot, or horseback, or by boat to the head of Loch Torridon. There is a right-of-way up the loch side to Torridon, and part of it is a good road. There is no difficulty in procuring a boat at Shieldaig. This approach to Gairloch not only includes the scenery of Glen Torridon, but also that of Glen Shieldaig, which is very fine, and well worth seeing. The route is strongly recommended. There is no hotel at Torridon, nor is there any service of steamers into Loch Torridon. Those travelling in a yacht will find it a pleasant expedition to visit Loch Maree and the adjacent parts of Gairloch from Loch Torridon. All who enter Gairloch by this route must walk from Torridon to Kenlochewe, unless conveyances have been previously ordered to meet them at Torridon.

4. FROM GRUINARD AND THE NORTH.

The estate road between Gruinard and Aultbea having now been rendered passable by carriages, there is no reason why it should not be used as a means of ingress or egress to or from Gairloch parish. The principal difficulty in the way is, that there is no bridge over the Meikle Gruinard river, and it cannot always be forded. A minor difficulty, not however of much importance, is that a quarter of a mile of private road between the ford on that river and the commencement of the county road near Gruinard House is in a very bad state. The best method of using this route as an approach to Gairloch, is either to walk it, taking the ferry-boat across the Meikle Gruinard river, or else to drive to that river in a conveyance hired from Garve or from the Dundonell Inn at the head of Loch Broom, and to have another conveyance from the river to Aultbea, Poolewe, or Gairloch, as may be desired,--the second conveyance to be ordered beforehand from the hotel at one of the last named places. The distances are given in the "Tables of distances." Of course if this route be selected for leaving Gairloch, the conveyance for the road north of Gruinard must be ordered beforehand. The route from Garve need not be described here. The last part lies over Fain Mor, or Feithean Mor, to Dundonell and Little Loch Broom, and thence forward to Gruinard. The road from Gruinard to Aultbea is described in Part IV., chap. xii. When a bridge is erected over the Meikle Gruinard river this route will no doubt become popular. It reveals some grand scenery.

* * * * *

Besides these approaches by road there is Mr David Macbrayne's service of west coast steamers, by which a large number of tourists arrive at and depart from the Gairloch pier during each summer. Gairloch is reached from Oban in one day, and the arrangements are so complete that you may even visit Skye from Gairloch and have eight hours in that interesting island, returning the same day. I have myself done this.

There is an approach to Gairloch which is sometimes adopted, and has its charms in settled weather. It is to take a boat from Ullapool to Laide, where, by previous arrangement, a conveyance may meet the traveller from one of the inns or hotels in Gairloch parish, of which Aultbea is the nearest. Of course this route may be also used as an egress from Gairloch, by previously arranging for a boat to be ready at Laide. With a favourable breeze the part of the journey on the water is delightful, to those who are good sailors, affording as it does magnificent views of the mountainous coast and of the Summer Isles. The great drawback is the uncertainty. I remember once leaving Aultbea, after an early breakfast, walking to Laide, and owing to a dead calm not reaching Ullapool until 9 P.M.

The pedestrian who is able to take advantage of the rougher roads not traversable by carriage, and the canoeist who, in summer weather, can explore any part of the coast at his pleasure, will find other means of entering Gairloch. Our map will shew all that is needed.

The roads within the parish of Gairloch are named in the "Tables of distances," which state also their condition. The main road from Achnasheen to Kenlochewe, Talladale, Gairloch, Poolewe, and Aultbea, which is maintained by the county, is usually in a good state of repair, and even the man on wheels--the bicyclist or tricyclist--will find this road yields him easy running. The great drawback is the steep hills, or "braes" as they are called, which have to be surmounted. These are for the most part unavoidable, though in one or two cases the gradients might be still further improved. The estate and private roads are also generally kept in good order. They are included in the "Tables of distances," which specify the parts where carriages will find it rough travelling.

Loch Maree is itself a sort of highway, and boats may generally be hired at Kenlochewe, Talladale, or Poolewe to traverse its length. But now that the little steamer plies on Loch Maree the tour of the loch is greatly facilitated. (See Part IV., chap. xiii.)

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III. ACHNASHEEN TO KENLOCHEWE

The parish of Gairloch communicates with the great railway system of the kingdom at Achnasheen; the nearest part of the parish is about four miles from the railway station.

The Dingwall and Skye Railway was opened about 1870, and is now a branch of the Highland Railway. Before 1870 the Gairloch mail-car started from the Dingwall railway station. The mail-car was worked at that time, as now, by Mr Murdo M'Iver, the much-respected and courteous landlord of the Achnasheen Hotel. At this hotel the traveller may obtain refreshments en passant, or may linger awhile. Notice the luxuriant growth of the lovely scarlet creeper Tropæolum speciosum, on the hotel. The mail-car leaves Achnasheen for Gairloch soon after the arrival of the morning train from the south. In the height of the tourist season it is safest to bespeak seats on the car. More luxurious tourists may hire open or close conveyances from Mr M'Iver, whose postal address is "Achnasheen, by Dingwall." The name Achnasheen means "the field of storms," and is generally allowed to be appropriate. The obliging station-master may be relied upon to remedy as far as he can any of those casualties which frequently occur to travellers in the tourist season, who sometimes move about with an unnecessary amount of luggage.

To most people it is an agreeable change to lose sight of the railway, a consummation which is achieved a few minutes after you leave the Achnasheen Hotel. Over the bridge on the left goes the road to Strath Carron. Beyond the bridge is the Ledgowan shooting lodge, formerly the hotel. Notice here the wonderful straight terraces, resembling very closely great railway embankments. Geologists differ about their origin; they look like moraines of ancient glaciers or ancient sea-banks, broken through by the now small river from Loch Rosque, which must have had larger volume at some remote date. On the left we pass the old Loch Rosque lodge, and on the right the new one. Near the roadside, below the new lodge, are to be seen quantities of iron slag, the evidences of ancient iron-smelting. Similar remains of ironworks may also be observed by the roadside near the other end of Loch Rosque. These old ironworks belong to the ancient class treated of in Part I., chap. xvii. Loch Rosque is over three miles long, and is placed on our list of Gairloch lochs, inasmuch as its western end juts into the parish. Observe on the other side of the loch pieces of detached walls, erected to enable sheep to shelter from the cutting winds which often sweep through this glen. Most travellers get rather tired of Loch Rosque, yearning as they naturally do for the superior attractions of Loch Maree. A small burn near the west end of Loch Rosque is the boundary of Gairloch parish. Just after passing it is a cottage, and near it stands a square upright stone. The stone is called Clach an t' Shagart, or "the stone of the priest." The place is called Bad a Mhanaich, or "the monk's grove." It seems there was here a settlement of some of the early pioneers of Christianity. They say that baptisms were conducted at the Clach an t' Shagart. The name of Loch Rosque itself is believed by many to signify "the loch of the cross." (See "Glossary.")

After passing the Gairloch boundary there is another humble dwelling (lately a licensed house), called Luibmhor. It suggests what the inn at Kenlochewe must have been in the old days as described in Pennant's "Tour" (Appendix B). On the green at the head of the loch was the original Luibmhor Inn, the scene of the incident called "The watch of Glac na Sguithar," related on page 51.

The road now ascends; gradually the eastern hills pass out of sight; the rugged mountains of Coulin and Kenlochewe are in view during the drive along Loch Rosque; then they also disappear. At this part of the journey I always think of what occurred to myself some years ago. I was on the mail-car, traversing this road in the reverse direction. Near me sat a tourist, a clergyman of the English Church, who had amused himself during the preceding part of the journey by inquiring the name of every hill and place we passed. As soon as the mountain called Scuir a Mhuilin, to the south of Strath Braan, eastward of Achnasheen, came in sight, he asked me its name. I told him. When we got near Achnasheen he again inquired the name of the same hill, which now seemed larger and grander, and I again told him. Half an hour later he came up to me on the platform of the Achnasheen station, and asked quite seriously if I could tell him "the name of that hill." I said with some emphasis, "Scuir a Mhuilin!" I am bound to admit that the reverend gentleman tendered a humble apology for his unconscious repetition of the inquiry. Whether he remembered the name of the mountain I know not. There is no good to be gained by stating the name of every hill we notice.

Soon after leaving Loch Rosque a curious hill is seen away to the left, which is said in all the guide-books to resemble the profile of a man's face looking skywards, and by a stretch of the imagination any traveller may arrive at the same conclusion.

The ascending road now tends to the right. Near its extreme height an improvement in the line of the road was effected about 1874. The original piece of road is visible a little above to the right. It is a pity some other Gairloch roads are not similarly improved.

At the head of the watershed, 804 feet above the sea-level, we enter Glen Dochartie, a truly wild Highland glen. Its stern character is greatly relieved by the exquisite distant view of Loch Maree, half-way down which, at a distance of about twelve miles from the spectator, Isle Maree may easily be discerned. There used to be a very good well just below the road at the head of the glen; the water still flows at the place, but the well is covered by the new road; this was formerly a favourite trysting-place of the Gairloch and Loch Broom men when they went out to lie in wait for the Lochaber cattle-lifters. Glen Dochartie, and the Great Black Corrie in Glen Torridon, were the entrances to Gairloch from the south and east. (See stories in Part I., chap. xiii.) Glen Dochartie has many attractions, especially in the great variety of colouring on both sides. Perhaps it is best seen on the return journey by this route. On the right is Carn a Ghlinne (1770 feet), and on the left Bidein Clann Raonaild (1529 feet). There are remains of ancient ironworks near the head and at the foot of the glen (Part I., chap. xx). We travel rapidly down the glen, passing at the foot of it, to the right, the farm of Bruachaig. Shortly before finishing this stage Meall a Ghuibhais and Beinn Eighe (or Eay), come into view, the latter being perhaps the most effective mountain, from an artistic point of view, in the kingdom. Leaving the Kenlochewe shooting-lodge to the right, and crossing the bridge over the River Garbh, we pull up at the hotel at

KENLOCHEWE.

The name of this place is in Gaelic Ceann-loch-iu. It signifies the head of Loch Ewe, by which name Loch Maree was called in the seventeenth century. Hugh Miller, in that interesting book "My Schools and Schoolmasters," says:--"The name--that of an old farm which stretches out along the head or upper end of Loch Maree--has a remarkable etymology; it means simply the head of Loch Ewe, the salt-water loch into which the waters of Loch Maree empty themselves, by a river little more than a mile in length, and whose present head is some sixteen or twenty miles distant from the farm which bears its name. Ere that last elevation of the land, however, to which our country owes the level marginal strip that stretches between the present coast line and the ancient one, the sea must have found its way to the old farm. Loch Maree, a name of mediæval origin, would then have existed as a prolongation of the marine Loch Ewe, and Kenlochewe would have actually been what the compound words signify,--the head of Loch Ewe. There seems to be reason for holding that ere the latest elevation of the land took place in our island, it had received its first human inhabitants,--rude savages, who employed tools and weapons of stone, and fashioned canoes out of single logs of wood. Are we to accept etymologies such as the instanced one--and there are several such in the Highlands--as good in evidence that these aboriginal savages were of the Celtic race, and that Gaelic was spoken in Scotland at a time when its strips of grassy links, and the sites of many of its seaport towns, such as Leith, Greenock, Musselburgh, and Cromarty, existed as oozy sea-beaches, covered twice every day by the waters of the ocean?"

Kenlochewe is a thoroughly Highland village, with its shooting-lodge, hotel, church, school, smithy, and not far away the old burial-ground of Culinellan. The village is beautifully placed, near the head of the level strath which spreads south-eastward from the head of Loch Maree. It comes in for a good deal of rain, being the centre at which four glens meet, viz., Glen Cruaidh Choillie (often erroneously called Glen Logan), Glen Dochartie, Glen Torridon, and the great glen of Loch Maree. The shooting-lodge is surrounded by a well-grown plantation; and other younger plantations are growing up near the village. The hotel is exceedingly comfortable, and visitors staying here have the privilege of fishing in the upper parts of Loch Maree. As the hotel is not large, rooms should be engaged beforehand. In Pennant's "Tour" (see Appendix B) is his account of the accommodation he found at Kenlochewe; read it, and be thankful for the luxuries of the present well-kept house. The neat little church was erected in 1878 by public subscription; it belongs to the Free Church, but has not a regularly settled minister. There was in old days a church or place of worship at or near Kenlochewe. There is a large grove of tall ash trees in the Culinellan burial-ground, and a colony of rooks nests annually in them. Several of the stories and traditions given in Part I. refer to Kenlochewe or its neighbourhood. A little to the north of the Kenlochewe Free church is the hillock called Cnoc a Chrochadair, or "the hangman's hill," where some of the M'Leods are said to have been hung (see page 45). Below the Culinellan burial-ground is the ford on the river called Athnan Ceann, or "the ford of the heads." The story relating the origin of this name is given on page 13. Kenlochewe is a favourite resort of artists, who find many subjects in the neighbourhood. Beinn Eighe, and the more distant Liathgach,--both in Glen Torridon,--are superb mountains, and they are best seen from Kenlochewe or near it.

There are two modes of reaching Gairloch from Kenlochewe. One, described in the next chapter, is by the county road past Grudidh bridge, Talladale, Slatadale, and the Falls of Kerry to the Gairloch Hotel. The other is to take the steamer from Ru Nohar, down Loch Maree to Tollie pier, and to proceed thence by road to Gairloch, as described in Part IV., chap. xiii. The mail, which, as has been said, is worked by Mr M'Iver, of Achnasheen, is not at present in connection with the steamer. Mr Hornsby, of the Gairloch Hotel, by previous communication, or Mrs Macdonald, of the Kenlochewe Hotel, so far as regards those who are staying in her house, will arrange for the conveyance of passengers and luggage to the steamer at Ru Nohar pier, which is two miles from Kenlochewe Hotel. In the busiest part of the tourist season there is a large conveyance awaiting the arrival of the mid-day train at Achnasheen, to carry to Ru Nohar those who wish to avail themselves of the steamer route.

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IV. KENLOCHEWE TO TALLADALE

Leaving the village of Kenlochewe we see the Torridon road striking off to the left. A mile further on the road crosses a burn, whose bed is composed of fragments of white quartzite washed down from the rocky heights of Beinn Eighe.

Further on to the right is the farm of Tagan, a short distance from the road. Beyond and above it notice the precipitous spur of Beinn a Mhuinidh, called Bonaid Donn, and the waterfall (Part III., chap, i.) on its steep face. In the distance, looking up the glen between the Bonaid Donn and Slioch, may be observed a curious hill, similar to one noticed in the last stage; the outline is a silhouette of a man's profile facing skywards.

As we approach the strand of Loch Maree the woods of Glas Leitire begin, and now the interest heightens. Wildfowl may often be seen about the marshy ground at the head of the loch. On the left a spur of Meall a Ghuibhais, with wild ravines, comes near the road, and the mingled foliage of the firs and birches enhances the charms of the scene.

Ru Nohar, with its little pier or jetty, is soon reached and passed. Were it not for the great convenience of the steamer on Loch Maree, and the new beauties it unfolds, most people would think it out of character with the wild surroundings.

Passing through the Glas Leitire woods roe-deer and black game may often be observed. One or two fir trees are of umbrella-like form (see illustration).

Her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, in "More Leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands," describes this part of the route in the following graphic language:--

"The windings of the road are beautiful, and afford charming glimpses of the lake, which is quite locked in by the overlapping mountains. There are trees above and below it, of all kinds, but chiefly birch, pine, larch, and alder, with quantities of high and most beautiful heather and bracken growing luxuriantly, high rocks surmounting the whole. Here and there a fine Scotch fir, twisted, and with a stem and head like a stone-pine, stands out on a rocky projection into the loch, relieved against the blue hills as in some Italian view."

The road is almost level until a mile beyond the bridge of Grudidh. Before we reach this bridge the wild Glen Grudidh, which is one of the most telling features in the scenery of Gairloch, has come in view. Its noble centre-piece is the fine peak of Ruadh Stac of Beinn Eighe, which is the highest summit in Gairloch parish, and attains an altitude of 3309 feet. The smaller peak beyond it acts as a foil to set off its grandeur.

There are fine old fir trees near Grudidh bridge; in combination with the rocky course of the Grudidh water they supply a series of splendid subjects for the artist's brush (see illustrations).

A mile further Eilean Grudidh is seen in a little bay. This island is mentioned on pages 21, 24, and 43, and is described on page 98. It was many centuries ago a stronghold of the MacBeaths, and afterwards of the MacLeods.

The road here is wild and dreary. Her Majesty speaks of it thus:--"Part of the way the road emerges altogether from the trees and passes by a mass of huge piled-up and tumbled-about stones, which everywhere are curiously marked, almost as though they were portions of a building, and have the appearance of having been thrown about by some upheaving of the earth."

Some rocks by the roadside exhibit fine examples of groovings and scratchings effected by ice in the glacial epoch.

The rocky hill along the base of which the road passes is Coinneachadh Beag (1830 feet), a spur of Beinn a Chearcaill. The English of Coinneachadh is a "meeting-place;" it does not require a great flight of imagination to picture the famous Hector Roy meeting his warrior forces on the slope of this wild hill to plan dire vengeance against the blood-stained M'Leods. Two miles beyond Grudidh bridge the road ascends and climbs the shoulder of Coinneachadh Beag, which runs out in a low promontory almost dividing Loch Maree. The highest part of the road is 130 feet above the level of the loch, and affords a fine view of Letterewe at the other side, and of the hills beyond it, on which is the place called to this day the Hollow of the son of Black John. An account of the death of this Macleod at the spot which bears his name will be found on pages 43 and 44. Descending the western side of the hill we reach the hamlet of Talladale, at the foot of the Talladale river, which comes from Strath Lungard. Here are picturesque trees. On the right is an old lime-kiln, and a little further on the same side the keeper's house. In the corner of the first field on the left were formerly ironworks (see page 92). John Roy Mackenzie, fourth laird of Gairloch, died at Talladale; his piper, Rorie Mackay, spent part of his life here, and here Rorie's son, the celebrated "Blind piper," was born. Crossing the bridge, notice the stony bed of the small river and the steep end of Beinn an Eoin in the distance to the right. Almost immediately we reach

THE LOCH MAREE HOTEL, TALLADALE.

This hotel was built in 1872, and is beautifully placed in a sheltered bay, backed by a hill called Sron a Choit, 970 feet in height, whose rocky tops rise above most beautiful natural birch woods. A small pier or jetty was erected here in 1884 as a landing-place for the steamer. There are good stables, in connection with the larger posting establishment at Gairloch. Mr M'Iver, of Achnasheen, has also a stable not far from the hotel for the horses which work his mail-cars. The hotel, which has lovely views of Slioch and the islands of Loch Maree, contains a spacious coffee-room, a private sitting-room, and near a score of bedrooms. There is a telegraph and post office, and a supply of boats and gillies waiting for engagement. Visitors here have the privilege of fishing some of the best parts of Loch Maree. The sport varies in different years, and is frequently very good. Part IV., chap. xvii., is devoted to the subject of angling in Loch Maree, which may be said to continue from the middle of May to the middle of October. The greatest rush of anglers is from the middle of August to the middle of September; I recommend those who can to come earlier in the season.

The Loch Maree Hotel has been distinguished by the visit of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, who occupied the house from 12th to 18th September 1877. Her Majesty narrates the incidents of this visit very fully in her book already quoted, to which I beg to refer the tourist. Her Majesty has the following entry on the day of her departure:--"Got up early and breakfasted at half-past eight, and at a quarter to nine we left with regret our nice cozy little hotel at Loch Maree, which I hope I may some day see again." This visit of our most gracious Sovereign evoked the reverential loyalty of all in Gairloch, and the popular wish still cherished among us may be accurately expressed in the old words,--

"Will ye no come back agen?"

In commemoration of the visit of Her Majesty, Sir Kenneth Mackenzie caused an inscription to be carved on a boulder of the "Torridon red" sandstone, which stands opposite the front door of the hotel. The inscription is in Gaelic, and is as follows:--"Air an dara latha-deug deth mhios meadhonach an fhoghair, 1877, thainig Ban-Righ Bhictoria a dh' fhaicinn Loch-Maruibhe, agus nan criochan mu'n cuairt. Dh'fhan i sea oidhche s'an tigh-osda so thall; agus 'na caomhalachd, dheonaich i g'um biodh a' chlach so 'na cuimhneachan air an tlachd a fhuair i 'na teachd do 'n chearn so de Ros."

The following is a literal translation:--"On the twelfth day of the middle month of autumn 1877 Queen Victoria came to visit Loch Maree and the country round it. She remained six nights in the opposite hotel, and, in her kindness, agreed that this stone should be a memorial of the pleasure she experienced in coming to this quarter of Ross."

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V. TALLADALE TO THE GAIRLOCH HOTEL

The road from Talladale to Gairloch passes for more than a mile through the woods which here skirt Loch Maree. Pretty peeps of the loch are obtained here and there where the trees permit.

As the natural birch wood grows thinner, its place is taken by a thick plantation of larch. This is bounded by the Garavaig burn, which is surmounted by a substantial bridge. Crossing the bridge we get a glimpse of the Victoria Falls (Part III., chap. i.). On the right begin the fields or parks (as enclosed cultivated lands are always called in the north) of Slatadale. In the angle formed by the loch and the Garavaig burn, at the corner of the first park, was the old Garavaig iron-smelting furnace; and if this field should happen to have been lately ploughed, the traveller may notice that parts of it are stained black with charcoal burnings (see page 93). The house of Slatadale, which is distant two miles from the Loch Maree Hotel, is a neat building, prettily situated near the margin of the loch.

Along the shore at Slatadale commences the section of the old road, which follows the line of the loch for some two miles further, and then strikes up the depression to the south-west of the Craig Tollie range, and so reaches Poolewe. Remains of this old military road have been visible all the way from Achnasheen, except in some parts where the present road is on the same track.

From Slatadale the road to Gairloch rapidly ascends, winding round the base of a hill named Meall Lochan a Chleirich (1319 feet), which rises to the left; on the right, but further away, is Meall an Doire. As we approach the summit, lovely views are obtained of the range of mountains on the north-east side of Loch Maree (including the conical peak of Slioch), and of the wide part of the loch with its numerous islands, which from this point of view stand out distinctly separate from each other.

A little above the road, on the left, is a large detached fragment of rock, which bears a curious resemblance to an old stage coach, or perhaps, more accurately speaking, to one of the old lumbering diligences of France.

Just beyond the apex of the watershed is a small loch, on the left, called Fear (or Feir) Loch, and a little further a larger and very picturesque loch called Loch Bad na Sgalaig; in the distance is the superb peak of Bathais or Bus Bheinn. For an account of the introduction of pike into these lochs see Part IV., chap. xviii. The good bag of eagles recorded in Part III., chap. iii., was made on Bus-Bheinn; and Iain Liath's well (see page 39) is at the base of the mountain. Near the road, but on the other side of the River Kerry where it leaves Loch Bad na Sgalaig, is a keeper's house; and a little beyond it the old road diverges to the right, at the foot of a hill called Meall Aundrairidh (1068 feet).

The road now rapidly descends, and in half a mile passes alongside the Kerry Falls (Part III., chap. i.). Another mile brings us to Kerry bridge, where Her Majesty Queen Victoria, on 17th September 1877, graciously met above two hundred and fifty Lews people, who had come over by steamer from Stornoway to see their beloved Queen, accompanied by the Rev. Mr Greenfield, their minister.

The road over this bridge leads to Shieldaig and the other places on the south side of Gairloch. Beautiful patches of natural wood are seen on all sides, and the colouring of the lower hills is very fine.

A little further, Kerrysdale House is passed. It is a small farmhouse, with very picturesque surroundings, but is placed rather low. The road now enters a large larch plantation, and runs for some distance along the Kerry river. This was a well-known resort of the fairies. The Gaelic name of Kerrysdale is Cathair Bheag, or the "little seat" of the fairies. Emerging from the wood, look back at the remarkably fine view of Bathais or Bus Bheinn. It rises beyond the centre of the deep gorge, which has dense woods on either side. In the dark depths of this gorge the River Kerry is seen gleaming far below. Another mile brings us to the bay and hamlet of Charlestown, in an inner recess of the Gairloch sea-loch. The houses clustered about the head of this bay (called in Gaelic Ceann an t' Sail, or "the head of the salt water") are now generally included in the term Gairloch, as applied to a village or place. The first house we come to is Glen Cottage, the residence of Mr Donald Mackenzie, west coast manager for Sir Kenneth Mackenzie. Before arriving at the post-office several houses are seen below the road and near the sea to the left, where are some trees of remarkable size, considering that they actually overhang the tide. The best of these houses is a lodging-house kept by Miss M'Iver; another is the only bakehouse in the parish. On the other side of the little bay is the Gairloch pier, with its storehouse and several houses beyond, called Port na Heile.

The post-office (which was formerly the Gairloch Inn) is at the head of the bay of Charlestown. Close by is the burn or small river which comes from the Flowerdale glen.

Immediately over the bridge that spans this burn is the road, to the right, leading to Flowerdale House and farm. This road is private. About a quarter of a mile up it is Flowerdale House, on the left. On the right, in a field below the road, may be seen the remains of the garden walls of the Tigh Dige and Stank-house, recalling memories of the old chiefs of Gairloch, and in a paddock beyond is "the island of justice," all described in former pages. Among the farm buildings is the old barn with the Mackenzie coat-of-arms, including the figure of Donald Odhar, the great Macrae archer.

After passing the end of the Flowerdale road, the short road leading to the pier at Port na Heile turns off almost immediately to the left. Just beyond this point the main road passes the well called "the Gairloch," from the story told on page 30.

Before leaving this picturesque little bay, the view up the Flowerdale glen, with the rocky Craig a Chait rising above the woods immediately behind the house, ought to be particularly noted. Think of Donald Odhar's wonderful shot recorded on page 46. Looking out towards the sea-loch, Fraoch Eilean is seen, celebrated for the slaughter of so many Macleods in the affair of Leac nan Saighead, the story of which is told on pages 45 and 46.

It is about a mile further to the Gairloch Hotel. Mounting a "brae," we pass the Caledonian Bank on the right, and a little further the Established church, also on the right. Just below the road on the left, alongside of the Established church, is the hollow in the turf-covered sand called the Leabaidh na ba bàine, or "bed of the white cow," where the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is dispensed twice a year. The gathering on these occasions is well worth seeing; it is described on pages 118 et seq.

A little further, to the left of the road, in a flat hollow in the sand hills, is the Gairloch churchyard or burial-ground, where lie the remains of the older lairds of Gairloch, and of many of the bards, poets, and pipers mentioned in this book, as well as of a great number of the less-known inhabitants of Gairloch. Here also was formerly the church of St Maelrubha, probably a thatched edifice. Perhaps the most remarkable gravestone in the churchyard is that of John Hay (see pages 82 and 83), said to have been the last manager of the Letterewe ironworks. Outside the entrance to the churchyard some fragments of slag may be seen (page 95). Between the churchyard and the road is the monument erected to the memory of John Mackenzie of "The Beauties" (Part II., chap. xxii.). The road now mounts the shoulder of the hill called the Crasg (mentioned on page 40); and fine views open out of the largest sandy beach at Gairloch, and of the wide expanse of the bay or sea-loch of the same name, with the hills of Skye, and some smaller islands further north, in the distance. At the south-west end of this sandy beach, a little to the right of the volunteer targets, is the hillock on which the Dun, the ancient castle of Gairloch, often named in the traditions given in Part I., and described on page 98, formerly stood. Some traces of its foundations are still to be seen, as well as slight remains of a vitrified fort, which is supposed to have occupied the same site before the castle stood there. On the side of the Crasg overlooking the churchyard, and a few yards west of the high road, is the Cnoc a Croiche, or "gallows hill," overhanging a steep ravine (see page 116).

Surmounting the Crasg we rapidly descend, and passing the new Free church (which actually contains a stained-glass rose window) on the left, and the Free church manse with its well-kept garden on the right, we reach at last

THE GAIRLOCH HOTEL.

This hotel was erected in 1872, and enlarged in 1881. It has a large coffee-room, a good drawing-room, a reading-room, a smoke-room, a billiard-room, and several good private sitting-rooms, whilst nearly one hundred and fifty beds can be made up. The hotel is conducted on the best modern system, and no one should object to the charges, for when the highest degree of comfort is provided it should be ungrudgingly paid for. The season is short, and the crowds of visitors it brings are necessarily a great tax on the resources of the establishment.

During the season services according to the form of the Church of England are conducted in the house, whilst those who prefer the Presbyterian churches will find the Established and Free churches in close proximity.

There is a stall in the hotel where Gairloch hose, photographs of the district, and other souvenirs can be purchased.

There are excellent gardens and hothouses on the slope behind the hotel, which is well supplied from them not only with vegetables in season, but with grapes, flowers, and decorative plants.

Near the hotel is a lawn-tennis ground, which may also be used as a bowling-green.

Sea-bathing may be had on the sandy beach below; a suitable bathing-machine is provided. Those who prefer to bathe al fresco and are able to swim, will find a retired nook immediately to the south-west of the eminence where the Dun and vitrified fort formerly stood; here there is a sort of natural swimming-bath, into which a header may be taken, and which gives space for a good swim. The sea is always as clear as crystal on this rock-bound coast.

Boats may be hired from the hotel for sea-fishing, or for expeditions on the Gairloch. The smaller islands may be visited, and the coast on either side examined.

Loch Tollie is appropriated for anglers staying at the hotel. There is a boat on the loch, and good trout-fishing may be had on its waters.

There is a small shop in the vicinity of the hotel. In the neighbouring village of Strath, about a mile from the hotel, are good general merchants' stores where most things may be purchased.

The Gairloch Hotel is remarkable for the fine view of the broad bay which is obtained from all the front windows of the house. Beyond the bay is the Minch, bounded in the extreme distance by the Isle of Skye. Every atmospheric change invests this beautiful view with a new character.

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VI. THE GAIRLOCH HOTEL TO POOLEWE

Starting northwards from the Gairloch Hotel, the hamlet of Achtercairn (Part IV., chap, x.) is the first place we pass; Achtercairn House (Dr Robertson) is on the right.

As the road ascends the Achtercairn Brae the village of Strath of Gairloch is well seen. The house in the largest grove of trees is the Established church manse (Rev. D. S. Mackenzie), in the enlargement of which in 1823 the celebrated geologist and author, Hugh Miller, took part as a mason's lad. In another grove in Strath is the Cottage Hospital, founded by Mr Francis H. Mackenzie, but now disused and occupied as a dwelling-house.

From the higher parts of the Achtercairn Brae there are splendid views of the Bay of Gairloch and the hills of Skye. From one point near the top of the Brae the jagged summits of the Cuchullins in Skye may be discerned.

To the left of the road, as the higher part is gained, there is a fine deep gorge down which the Achtercairn burn or river rushes; it forms a pretty cascade in the higher part. A rock on the north side of the gorge is called Craig an Fhithich, because a raven formerly nested in a crevice on the face of it. After a short descent notice a large boulder on the right of the road called "The shoestone" (Clach nam Brog), from the fact that women who had walked barefoot over the hills on their way to church at Gairloch were (and still frequently are) accustomed here to resume their shoes and stockings. To the left is a reedy loch on the minister's glebe, called Loch Feur, a haunt of ducks and other wildfowl. Another small loch, called Lochan nan Breac, or Lochan nan Breac Adhair, lies still further to the left.

At this point notice a singular-looking hill to the right of and nearer to the road than the Lochan nan Breac. It is an interesting subject for the geologist. Dr Geikie, speaking of the hummocky outlines of the gneiss emerging from under the overlying sandstones, writes as follows of this hill:--"Little more than a mile to the north of the church (Gairloch) the road to Poolewe descends into a short valley surrounded with gneiss hills. From the top of the descent the eye is at once arrested by a flat-topped hill standing in the middle of the valley at the upper end, and suggesting some kind of fortification; so different from the surrounding hummocky declivities of gneiss is its level grassy top, flanked by wall-like cliffs rising upon a glacis-slope of debris and herbage." Further on, this flat-topped hill, seen in profile, looks like an enormous railway embankment.

By the side of the road, on the left, there is or was one of those heaps of stones formed by funeral parties (see pages 115 and 116).

About half a mile beyond the shoestone, and some two hundred yards to the right of the road, is a pond or very small loch, called Lochan nan Airm, or the "tarn of the arms," into which long ago warriors vanquished in a fight near the place threw their weapons (see page 21). The commencement of a drain, intended to empty the tarn so as to discover the weapons, is still to be seen; it was stopped by the then laird of Gairloch, whose permission had not been obtained for draining the tarn. This tarn is in a hollow on the side of one of the moraines of ancient glaciers which hereabouts flank the highroad.

About two and a half miles from the Gairloch Hotel the summit of the watershed is reached. The pass through which the road turns, after a long ascent, is called "The glen," where is a good spring. To the left is the rock called Craig Bhadain an Aisc, at which the two little boys of Allan M'Leod, of Gairloch, were murdered by their uncles and then buried (see page 26).

At the further end of "The glen" there is on the right hand side of the road a flat moss called Blar na Fala, or "the plain of the blood," because this was a place to which cattle were driven in order that blood might be taken from them (see page 136).

Further on, Loch Tollie, a mile in length, is spread out on the right. The trout-fishing of this loch is attached to the Gairloch Hotel, and there is a boat for the use of anglers. The small island near the shore with a few bushes on it (see illustration) is of artificial origin; it was a crannog or fortress of the MacBeaths, and afterwards of the M'Leods. The traditions connected with the island will be found in chaps. vi. and vii. of Part I. An anecdote of a very different character, telling how a wild cat and her young were killed on this island, is given in Part III., chap. iii.

The hill to the south of "The Glen" bears the name of Meall Aridh Mhic Criadh, and is 1140 feet in height.

Beyond Loch Tollie, to the right, is the northern end of the fine range of Craig Tollie, which is peculiarly rocky and wild.

The hill to the left of the road before we got to Loch Tollie was Meall a Deas (749 feet); and now, as we leave Loch Tollie, we have on the left the end of Meall na Cluibha, or Cliff Hill (750 feet), which is much finer on its face towards Poolewe, where it rises from a lower plateau.

From the higher part of the road as we skirt Loch Tollie there is a good view before us, at a distance of some six or eight miles, of Beinn a Chaisgean (2802 feet), in the parish of Loch Broom, beyond Fionn Loch, and through a gap in it may be seen some of the jagged summits of the Dundonell mountains.

At the lower end of Loch Tollie there was formerly a weir or dam in connection with a mill far down the burn which flows from the loch, and this kept the water of the loch at a higher level than it now stands at.

After leaving Loch Tollie we can easily trace the old road from Slatadale winding down the glen behind Craig Tollie. Shortly before it joins the road we are travelling it is overshadowed by a bold crag, called Leth Chreag (see illustration), on the opposite side of the burn. The name means the "half rock," and refers to the sheer aspect (as if half had been broken off) of the face of the rock towards the burn.

The first view of the lower end of Loch Maree now comes in sight, with the graceful form of Beinn Aridh Charr rising above it. A peak close to the summit of this mountain bears the name of Spidean Moirich, or "Martha's peak." It is said that a woman of that name having climbed this peak sat down and began winding thread on her spindle. The spindle fell from her hand down the steep rocks to the north-east. Martha tried to recover the spindle, but fell over the rock and was killed. Hence the name. To the left of Beinn Aridh Charr are the spurs of Beinn a Chaisgean Mor, called Scuir a Laocainn and Scuir na Feart, with the Maighdean to the right. Reaching the point where the branch road leads down to Tollie pier, a magnificent view of Loch Maree presents itself to the eye. The whole length of the loch, and Glen Dochartie beyond it, are in sight. On any tolerably fine day the road up Glen Dochartie is plainly seen at a distance of not less than fifteen to sixteen miles, a proof of the wonderful clearness of the northern atmosphere. Beyond Glen Dochartie in the extreme distance are peaks, thirty miles away, of mountains in the Monar forest, which retain some snow long after it has disappeared from the mountains of Loch Maree. Half-way up Loch Maree is seen Isle Maree, with its grove of tall trees. The immediate foreground is softened by the natural woods of birch, oak, and rowan round the bases of Craig Tollie and of the lower hills on the east side of Tollie farm. This view of Loch Maree has formed the subject of celebrated pictures by the late Horatio M'Culloch, Mr H. W. B. Davis, R.A., Mr A. W. Weedon, and other well-known artists. The road so far is the same as that which is traversed by the carriages or "machines" conveying voyageurs to the Loch Maree steamer. For our present purpose we shall suppose the tourist to be proceeding towards Poolewe.

The road now turns abruptly to the left, and rapidly descends the hill called Croft Brae. The present road is a great improvement upon the old one, which takes a higher course and has a steeper incline. The old road went straight down to the banks of the Ewe, but our way proceeds from the foot of the hill along level ground a little above the river. The small hamlet or village here is properly called Croft of Tollie, misspelt in the Old Statistical Account "Croft of Jolly," the last word being decidedly a lucus a non lucendo. This hamlet is usually called Croft. A short bit of road to the right leads to the landing-place at the lower extremity of the navigable part of the River Ewe, called Ceann a Chro, or Cruive End, i.e. the head or end of the cruive (for taking salmon), which formerly spanned the river just below. At Cruive End is a thatched house called "The still," occupied rent free by several poor widows. It was originally built for a whisky distillery. Close to Cruive End there formerly stood a small thatched church or place of worship (see pages 70 and 99), which was used in the memory of old people now living, i.e. up to about 1826. All traces of it have now disappeared.

On the left of the high road, two hundred yards beyond Cruive End, is the green hillock called "The hill of evil counsel," where Allan Macleod, who lived in the island of Loch Tollie (see page 25), was murdered by his brothers.

Looking back there are beautiful views of the upper reaches of the river Ewe winding through low wooded hills, which may be called "the Trossachs of Loch Maree," and a distant peep of the loch itself heightens the charm of the view.

Further on to the right is the Poolewe manse, well placed on a brow overlooking the river. To the left is the Poolewe post and telegraph office, formerly a school.

The group of houses a little further on to the left is called Mossbank. The tallest house (Mrs Morrison) is a lodging-house. The next is Mossbank Cottage, occupied by Dr M'Ewen; it has a fruitful walled garden. Another house, of the usual local type, is occupied by John Mackenzie (Iain Glas), the present water-bailiff of the river. In a cottage a little further on lives Finlay M'Kinnon, the Poolewe artist (Part II., chap. xxiv.). We now enter the village of

POOLEWE.

It is not a beautiful spot, but it perhaps gives one more the idea of a village than some other more scattered places in Gairloch parish. Mr H. F. Wilson, of Cambridge, has well described Poolewe, in his racy ode, dated August 1885, and entitled "Carmen Pooleviense." After speaking of the Ewe, he says you may see,--

"Just where that river feels the brine, A bridge, a pool, a whitewash'd line Of unpretentious cottages, Differing in sizes and degrees; A kirk, too ample in extent To house the shrunk 'Establishment;' An inn, our 'guard-room,' to command Wide-reaching view by sea and land; A windy green, a sandy cliff, A flag-staff standing stark and stiff; Such is our πολις, proud to be Compact, αναγκαιοτὰτη."

Poolewe was formerly called Clive, and, according to the retour of 1638 (page 61), was once "a burgh of barony." There are three merchants' shops in the village street, also (on the left) the salmon depôt or boiling-house of Mr A. P. Hogarth, of Aberdeen, the lessee of the salmon-fishings on the extensive sea coast of Gairloch. It is managed by Alexander Mutch, of Aberdeen, who generally arrives at Poolewe early in April and remains until September.

The first building on the right is the Poolewe Public Hall, which though but a small room suffices for the wants of the place (see Part IV., chap. i.).

On the same side at the further end of the village street is the Established church (Church of Scotland), and on the right is the Poolewe Inn or Hotel, kept by Mr A. Maclennan. Compared with the Gairloch, Loch Maree, and Kenlochewe hotels, it yields but humble accommodation. Some improvements are being effected, and I believe even ladies find the house comfortable enough. Mr Maclennan carries on a posting business. Boats can be hired for sea-fishing in Loch Ewe, and trout-fishing can generally be had on some fresh-water lochs.

On the flat plain behind and to the south of Poolewe and Moss Bank (called Bac Dubh), a large market, called the Feill Iudha, or "ewe market" (page 104), was held for generations, and was discontinued about 1720.

Mr Macbrayne's large steamers call at Poolewe once a fortnight. A jetty and storehouse, where goods are landed and kept dry, have recently been provided just below Poolewe church. There are considerable quantities of clayband and hematite iron ores to be seen both here and nearer Poolewe bridge,--evidences of those ores having been landed here (see page 89).

The Poolewe Free Church meeting-house, and the smithy, with a number of dwellings, are on the other side of the river. They are, properly speaking, in Londubh.

At the other side of the mouth of the river is Pool House, formerly the Londubh Inn. It has been enlarged and improved by Sir Thomas Edwards Moss, Bart., who has a lease of it with some shootings. He has erected a stable near the east end of Poolewe bridge, where the smithy formerly stood.

The hamlet or township of Londubh, including all the dwellings and buildings on the east side of the lower part of the River Ewe, has since the erection of Poolewe bridge become virtually a part of Poolewe. The name Londubh signifies "the black bog." I have heard a native suggest that the name of the metropolis of Great Britain is pure Gaelic, for the Gaelic for a brown bog (which the Strand is said to have originally been) is just Lon-donn!

Many of the houses in Londubh are on a flat hidden by the old sea terrace, and are therefore scarcely visible from the main road. Londubh, or Baile na h' Eaglais, was formerly called Inverewe, a name now only applied to Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie's house opposite. The most conspicuous house in Londubh is that called Kirkton House, a little above the road skirting Loch Ewe beyond Pool House. Londubh was formerly part of the Kernsary estate, and this house, where James Mackenzie, so often quoted in these pages, now lives, was then the home of the proprietors of Kernsary. Close to it is the old Inverewe burial-ground. A wall was built round it a few years ago. Here is the burial-place of the Kernsary family, formed out of the ancient church or chapel (page 101) which in old days occupied the site.

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VII. POOLEWE TO AULTBEA

Leaving Poolewe we follow the county road over Poolewe bridge, behind Pool House, and along the shore of the bay that forms the head of Loch Ewe. Notice the picturesque pool in which the River Ewe joins Loch Ewe, so much finer than the usual muddy estuary of an east coast river.

After passing on the right the Londubh or Inverewe burial-ground and the home of James Mackenzie at Kirkton (referred to in the last chapter), we cross a small burn. This forms the march or boundary between the estates of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, and his half-brother Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie of Inverewe. Since the parish of Gairloch was entered at Luibmhor, near the west end of Loch Rosque, we have been on the territory of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie.

On the right is Srondubh, with a few trees, and by it the farm buildings of the home farm in connection with Inverewe House. The road skirts along well cultivated arable land until the Inverewe plantations are reached.

Inverewe House was erected by Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie in 1865. It is beautifully situated in a northern recess of the bay at the head of Loch Ewe, in the shelter of a rocky headland called Ploc-ard. The house has a Highland character; it faces due south, and commands a fine view of Beinn Aridh Charr. To the south the summits of the distant Gairloch mountains and the rocky ranges of Craig Tollie and Cliff Hill, with the mouth of the River Ewe and the bay at the head, of Loch Ewe in the foreground, form an enchanting picture. From the village of Poolewe the house--surrounded as it is with planted woods now well grown--is a pleasing object. There are walks in these woods, and separate sea-bathing places for ladies and gentlemen. There is the best anchorage for yachts of the largest size close to the house.

The Inverewe gardens are wonderfully attractive, yielding as they do exquisite flowers nearly all the year round. The following remarks about these gardens are from one of a series of letters from the Highlands which appeared in the Times in the autumn of 1883:--

"Thanks to genial winters, from the softening influence of the Gulf Stream, ornamental gardening richly repays one in those sheltered situations that slope to the sea-arms. The most enchanting spot in that way which I have seen is the garden of Inverewe, on Loch Ewe, rented at present by Lord Fitzwilliam. The garden was laid out by the proprietor, Mr Osgood Mackenzie, whose taste must be as unimpeachable as his knowledge of flowers. The gardens form a terraced amphitheatre, shelving gently towards the Loch, and backed up by the hanging woods, which have only been recently planted. Fruit-trees, but a very few years old, are already loaded with plums, pears, &c. The low stone walls that front the earth-banks are covered with many of the rarer creepers, some of them almost semi-tropical, with luxuriant myrtles just bursting into flower, and with clusters of roses of wonderful size. But what is most remarkable is the marvellous vividness of the colours in such brightly tinted flowers as crimson roses and scarlet gladioli. The warm damp seems to give a brilliancy to the tints which I have never seen either in England or in southern Europe."

The highroad now takes an easterly course, and, passing young plantations, soon comes in sight of Loch-nan-Dailthean. Here is Tournaig, the residence of the Dowager Lady Mackenzie of Gairloch, with its beautiful little garden, described in the Times letter just quoted, as follows:--

"Even more noteworthy, perhaps, is the less pretentious garden at Mr Mackenzie's pretty cottage of Tournaig, situate two miles inland. There, a mere pit in the heather, which must have originally resembled a stone quarry, has been turned, chiefly by blasting, into a little fairyland of leafy luxuriance and gorgeous colouring, though where the plants find soil to strike their roots is a puzzle. As for the cabbages, in their swelling proportions they are rather like balloons than ordinary vegetables. And it must be a piquant experience to stroll of a morning among flower-beds that recall the beauties of Bellagio or the Isola Bella, and afterwards to go out ptarmigan shooting or deer-stalking on some of the most storm-beaten hills in the whole breadth of the Highlands."

About half a mile beyond the head of Loch nan Dailthean, and a mile south from Tournaig, is the pretty natural wood called Coille Aigeascaig, whose charms are celebrated in Alexander Cameron's song, given in Part II., chap. xxiii.

There is a small cave among the hills two miles due east from Tournaig. It is called Uamh Mhic 'ille Rhiabhaich, or "the cave of Mac Gille Riabhaich." The cave is close to a loch bearing the same name, on which are two small islands, one of which seems to have been a stronghold. An account of Mac Gille Riabhaich, who lived in this cave, is given in Part I., chap. viii.

In one of the fields at Tournaig is a place where the natives in the old days used to bleed living cattle landed here from the Hebrides (Part II., chap. viii.).

At Tournaig the road bends to the left, and passes the Tournaig farm buildings, where lives Alexander Cameron, the farm manager, who is a Gaelic poet (Part II., chap. xxiii.). The branch of Loch Ewe which approaches Tournaig is called Loch Tournaig.

In Loch Tournaig is a small peninsular headland, on the north side of the Inverewe Point called the Dunan (see illustration). This headland is insulated at high spring-tides. On it a dun, or fort, is said to have formerly stood, but tradition does not say who held it. There are many loose stones on the top, though no traces of walls or foundations can be found. The strongest evidence that this was the site of a fort or other similar place, is found in the large and regularly placed stepping-stones which connect it with the mainland. The now superfluous height of these stones seems to point to their having been placed there when the sea was at a higher level.

From Loch Tournaig the road ascends, and has a devious and rather tedious course, until Drumchork is reached. At one point on the way is a peep of the well-known form of the Storr rock in Skye; and further on a burn is crossed, which is the march in this direction between the estates of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie and Mrs Liot Bankes. The western shore of Loch Ewe is well seen, with its townships of crofts. Loch Ewe is a fine expanse of water, opening due north to the Atlantic. Isle Ewe soon comes fully in view, with its little settlement towards the nearer end; whilst in the far distance may be seen, beyond the north-eastern extremity of the North Point and above the mouth of Loch Ewe, the northern parts of the Long Island, or at least of that part which is in the county of Ross, and is called "the Lews." Sometimes the three summits behind Stornoway may be distinctly discerned.

Drumchork, which is nearly seven miles from Poolewe, comprises a commodious shooting-lodge some way up the hillside (now leased by Mr C. E. Johnston), and nearer the road, on the right-hand side, a square of farm buildings, erected about 1880 on the site of the old house of Drumchork. This place, as well as the village of Aultbea, and the territory on both sides of the following road, including the whole of the Green Stone Point (except Mellon Charles, which is Sir Kenneth's), is the property of Mrs Liot Bankes. Her estate extends westward from here to a burn on Slioch, where it marches with Sir Kenneth's estate. Towards the north her property is bounded by the sea, and then by the Meikle Gruinard river; thus it extends beyond the parish of Gairloch; it may be said to include all the parts of the parish up to Slioch lying to the north-east of Loch Maree, the River Ewe, and Loch Ewe, except Mellon Charles and the Inveran beat belonging to Sir Kenneth, and except the estate of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie. The latter extends northwards and eastwards to Fionn Loch and the summit of Beinn Aridh Charr. The road turns off, to the left, just below Drumchork, to the village of

AULTBEA.

This village comprises an inn and post-office, and at some distance a large Free church and manse, with a stable where horses that have brought people from a distance to attend church can be put up. It may be said to comprise the hamlets or townships of Aultbea, Badfearn, Tighnafaoilinn, and Cuilchonich, which cover about a square mile.

The name Aultbea signifies "the birch burn," but there are not many birches there now. The burn runs into the sea close behind the inn. The county road at present terminates here. The bay is formed by the Point of Aird, the channel between which and Isle Ewe is barely half a mile across, and affords safe anchorage. Here stands Aird House, occupied by Mr Muir. It was erected by the Mackenzies of Gruinard, and was the residence of that family for some time.

The inn is old-fashioned, but sufficient for bachelors who do not object to roughing it a little. The landlord, Mr Forbes, is most civil and obliging; and excellent angling, both in Loch Ewe and on some good fresh-water lochs, can be had by those staying at the inn. Mr Forbes can also provide a good horse and trap, and can arrange for the voyage from Laide to Ullapool suggested in Part IV., chap, ii., as a mode of exit from Gairloch. The hand-line fishing accessible from Aultbea, and the lythe trolling round the north end of Isle Ewe, are probably the best in Gairloch waters.

One of the two Gairloch policemen is stationed at Aultbea.

The road beyond Aultbea to Laide, and thence forward to Gruinard, has been put in excellent order by Mrs Liot Bankes, through whose property it passes. This and the branch roads are described in Part IV., chap. xii.

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VIII. EXCURSIONS FROM KENLOCHEWE

The drives from the Kenlochewe Hotel include those to various points of interest on the county road in both directions,--i.e. towards Achnasheen on the one hand (Part IV., chap, iii.), and towards Talladale on the other (Part IV., chap. iv.). Both sections will bear repeated examination, especially the part from Kenlochewe to Grudidh bridge in the direction of Talladale.

The excursion to Loch Torridon is perhaps the most interesting expedition from Kenlochewe. The distance from the hotel to the head of Loch Torridon is eleven miles; the excursion, including a rest at Torridon village, will occupy five hours. For a shorter drive or walk the bridge on the Allt a Choire Dhuibh Mhoir, or "burn of the great black corrie," may be made the limit. As it is only a good six miles from Kenlochewe the horses will not require a rest. The road is not at present complete beyond Torridon, and the visitor who proceeds there from Kenlochewe must return by the same road, unless he has a yacht awaiting him at Torridon, or takes the route viâ Shieldaig of Applecross recommended in Part IV., chap. ii. The road to Torridon leaves the Gairloch road at the north end of the village of Kenlochewe. It keeps the Garbh river to the left for some miles. About half a mile from Kenlochewe, in a picturesque bend of the river, is the hamlet of Cromasaig, where lived the old bard mentioned on pages 51 and 175. There are patches of natural birch wood and some rocky salmon pools on the river. To the right the magnificent mountain Beinn Eighe, with its quartzite peaks, rises very grandly; and in front are fine views of the Coulin hills. Fe (or Feith) Leoid is on the hill to the left; its name records the slaughter of Leod Mac Gilleandreis by Black Murdo of the Cave (Part I., chap. iii.). Four miles from Kenlochewe, Loch Clair is reached. It is a beautiful sheet of water, about three quarters of a mile long, with fine old fir trees on its shores. The new private road to Achnashellach, ten miles from Kenlochewe, diverges at this point, and is seen skirting the eastern shore of Loch Clair. There is a rock near Loch Clair called Maelrubha's Seat, where it is said the saint of Isle Maree rested when travelling between the monastery of Applecross and his cell on Isle Maree. Half a mile beyond Loch Clair is a smaller loch on the left, called Loch Bharanaichd. Two miles beyond Loch Clair the march or boundary between Gairloch and Applecross parishes is reached. To the right of the road, on the Gairloch side, is a pile of very large stones--evidently artificial--heaped up on a flat space. It is called Carn Anthony, or "Anthony's cairn," and is said to have been erected long ago in memory of a son, named Anthony, of one of the Mackenzie proprietors of Torridon. There are some remains of smaller heaps of stone by the side of the Torridon road formed by funeral processions at places where they halted to rest (Part II., chap. iii.). Half a mile beyond the march the road passes over the burn of the great black corrie. To the left, below Loch Bharanaichd, is a large hollow filled with a vast number of circular knolls or hillocks. This hollow is called Coire Cheud Cnoc, or "the corrie of a hundred hillocks." These singular mounds appear to a casual observer to resemble the artificial sepulchral tumuli found in other parts of the kingdom, but in reality, as geologists tell us, they are due to the natural action of ice or water in ages long since past. Some guide-books erroneously call the place Coire Cheud Creagh, or "the corrie of a hundred spoils;" the spoils were cattle lifted--i.e. stolen--in Gairloch; they were often driven this way, so that the name though fictitious has some justification. It was at shieling bothies near this place that Alastair Ross called for the Lochaber cattle-lifters, as related in Part I., chap. xiii. Another traditional incident assigned to this locality is that illustrating the Rev. Mr Sage's muscular Christianity, narrated in Part I., chap. xvi. The remainder of the road to Torridon is overshadowed by the mighty precipices of Liathgach, the highest top of which is 3456 feet above the sea level. The prefix Beinn often put before the name of this mountain is superfluous and out of place. Her Majesty Queen Victoria drove to Torridon on 15th September 1877, and in her diary refers to "the dark mural precipices of that most extraordinary mountain." Her Majesty writes:--"We were quite amazed as we drove below it. Beinn Liathgach is most peculiar from its being so dark, and the rocks like terraces one above the other, or like fortifications and pillars--most curious; the glen itself is very flat, and the mountains rise very abruptly on either side. There were two cottages (in one of which lived a keeper), a few cattle, and a great many cut peats."

The dark hill to the left is Sgurr Dubh (2566 feet), a gloomy mass of steep rocks. On its west side, in an elevated hollow invisible from the road, is the little loch or tarn called Lochan an Fheidh, where the battle between the Mackenzies under Alastair Breac and the Macleods under Iain MacAllan Mhic Ruaridh took place in 1610. The Macleods were completely routed, and nettles still grow over the spot where their bodies have long since returned to dust. Further on, to the left, is Beinn na h' Eaglais (2410 feet), or "church hill," a name evidencing the widespread labours of the followers of St Columba, who brought Christianity to these parts. The descent down the narrow glen towards Loch Torridon becomes steeper as we proceed, and in due time the little village of Torridon, at the head of the loch, is reached. Since the boundary of the parish of Gairloch was passed the road has been entirely on the estate of Mr Duncan Darroch, proprietor of Torridon, descended from MacGille Riabhaich (see page 28); he is an enthusiastic Highlander, and since he acquired this property in 1872 has done much to improve not only the estate but the condition of the people. He has erected a noble mansion on the shore of the loch about two miles beyond the village. He has recently sold the Beinn Damh estate, on the south side of the river and loch of Torridon, to the Earl of Lovelace.

A pleasant hour may be spent while the horses are being rested at Torridon. The low promontory jutting into the loch near the village is the Ploc of Torridon, mentioned in the story of the visit of John Roy Mackenzie to Lord Mackenzie of Kintail (Part I., chap xi.). From some points of view Beinn Alligin and Beinn Damh are conspicuous in the landscape. Beinn Alligin (3232 feet) is to the north of Loch Torridon, and is the mountain seen so well from Gairloch; Beinn Damh (2956 feet) has not such a noble contour. The traveller will probably return by the road just traversed. In some respects the views seem finer on the return journey.

Another pleasant little expedition from Kenlochewe is to the Heights of Kenlochewe, distant about three miles; the road is traversable so far by wheeled vehicles. Cross the bridge over the Bruachaig river just above the Kenlochewe lodge, and follow the road which soon bends to the right. There are good views from different points, especially of Beinn Eighe. The "Heights of Kenlochewe" is the name of the sheep farm, but the road does not attain to a level of more than three hundred feet above the sea. The glen has been erroneously called Glen Logan. The local name is Glen Cruaidh Choillie. The south-east side of it is called Leacaidh, or "the place of flags." Can "Logan" have been invented by some one who mispronounced Leacaidh? The great glen north of the head of this glen is called Glen na Muic, or the "glen of the pig;" they say wild boar were formerly hunted here; it must have been long ago. Some old people of the district locate the Fingalian legend of the "Boar of Diarmid" in Glen na Muic; but that well known and almost universal story is connected with many other places in the Highlands.

The path on the east side of Loch Maree forms an interesting expedition, or series of expeditions, for the pedestrian. Cross the bridge over the Bruachaig river, as if going to the Heights; turn to the left, and take the path past the head-keeper's house and the kennels. At a house to the right Duncan Mackenzie, the Kenlochewe bard, lives (Part II., chap, xxiii.). A little further are the farm and burial-ground of Culinellan; some remains of a house outside the burial-ground are called "the chapel;" it may have occupied the site of an ancient church, but this is mere conjecture. It is however certain that there was a church in this neighbourhood in the seventeenth century, and probably much earlier (see page 99). The river was formerly on this side of the burial-ground; a great flood altered the course of the stream, and they say washed away some bodies. Further on, immediately to the left of the path, is a small well, called Tobar Mhoire, i.e. the well of the Virgin Mary, or perhaps of the god Mourie (see Part II., chap. xi.). There is no better water in the country than this bubbling well supplies. Some of the old inhabitants believe that the ancient church called "Heglis Loch Ew" stood near the well. From a point half a mile beyond Culinellan the path lies along the bank of the Kenlochewe river. It is about two miles from Kenlochewe to the south-east corner of Loch Maree. Half a mile before this is reached is the small pond or swamp called Lochan Cul na Cathrach, into which the Fasagh ironworkers are said to have thrown their tools when the furnaces there were abandoned (Part I., chap. xx.). The name means "the lakelet or tarn at the back of the fairy seat;" a large mound or hillock at this place is called Cathir Mhor, or "the big seat of the fairies;" evidently the "good folk" frequented this place. Some other mounds here are called Torran nan Eun, or "the mounds of the birds;" the locality was formerly wooded. A large pool on the river is called Poll a Chuillin, or "the pool of the hollies," but there are no hollies there now. Another half mile brings us to the remains of the Fasagh ironworks, on the east side of the Fasagh burn, which comes from Loch Fada. These ironworks are described in Part I., chap. xx. The dark crag above is called Bonaid Donn, or "the brown bonnet." There is a wooden bridge over the burn, a little above the ironworks, and again above this bridge a narrow gorge; through which the burn has worn a deep course; it is a very picturesque spot. A quarter of a mile further the Cladh nan Sasunnach, or "English burial-ground," lies on a low flat bank close to the loch (Part I., chap. xviii.). Two hundred yards to the east of this burial-ground the path bends due north; it leads to Letterewe, and is well worth following as far as Regoilachy. The hamlet of Smiorsair is about four miles from Kenlochewe. It is situate in a hollow or dell, between the mighty Slioch (on the north) and a ridge of no great height stretching between the secluded plateau where Smiorsair nestles and Loch Maree. It is a romantic place with its waterfall, and a quiet burn meandering through the flat ground. The path next passes through a narrow gully called Clais na Leac, where they say ironstone used to be quarried. A mile beyond Smiorsair is the place called Regoilachy, near the shore of Loch Maree; there are remains of houses, but no one lives there now. The other hamlets between this and Letterewe are each about a mile apart; they are Coppachy, Innis Ghlas, and Fuirneis. Letterewe House is again a mile beyond Fuirneis; it is a walk of nine miles from Kenlochewe to Letterewe. The expedition may be continued beyond Letterewe to Ardlair, four miles, and thence on by Inveran to Poolewe, another four miles; but some portions of the path can scarcely be distinguished by strangers, and the part along the Bull-rock is, to say the least, difficult, and I do not recommend it. The Fasagh burn and Smiorsair may with advantage be made the objects of separate excursions, especially by those who sketch.

Perhaps the most generally enjoyable excursions from Kenlochewe are expeditions on Loch Maree itself. Boats can be hired in connection with the Kenlochewe Hotel, and many sailing or rowing trips undertaken in them along either shore of the loch. Not only the angler, but the searcher after health, the archaeologist, and the artist or amateur sketcher, will find much to interest and delight. The Fasagh burn and its ironworks, the Cladh nan Sasunnach, the curious Grudidh island, and the beauties of the lower part of the Grudidh river, may be visited by boat.

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IX. EXCURSIONS FROM TALLADALE

The excursions from the Loch Maree Hotel at Talladale, so far as terra firma is concerned, are principally to points along either section of the county road in the directions of Kenlochewe or Gairloch. These sections are described in Part IV., chaps. iv. and v. I recommend Grudidh bridge on the former, and the Kerry Falls on the latter, as being pleasant limits for drives or walks. The excursion to Torridon may, in imitation of Her Majesty, be made from the Talladale Hotel; and places near Gairloch (see next chapter) may also be visited from this hotel by those who prefer it to the larger and busier hotel at Gairloch.

For other walks from Talladale, a climb to the top of the lower hill immediately behind the hotel, a ramble about the hamlet of Talladale, and a stroll to the Victoria Falls, are recommended. Please spare the oak fern in the woods near Talladale.

A longer walk is to take the county road going west so far as the turn down to Slatadale farm. Take this turn, and when the shore of Loch Maree is reached, close to the farmhouse, walk a mile, or two miles if you like, in a north-westerly direction, along the old road which passes behind Craig Tollie, in the direction of Poolewe. This ramble has several fine points of view, and though after leaving Slatadale the road or track is rather rough, the walk will not be too much for any one in ordinary condition. This is a delightful excursion, and ought by all means to be tried. It may be prolonged to Poolewe (see map).

But as at Kenlochewe, so at Talladale, Loch Maree itself supplies the most charming expeditions. These may be taken either by the steamer or by hired boats.

The steamer is timed so as to give those staying at the Loch Maree Hotel, Talladale, the opportunity of visiting Tollie bay soon after breakfast. A short stay is permitted in the lovely nook where Tollie pier has been erected; and the return voyage to Talladale is accomplished by noon. The visitor on returning from Tollie may, instead of landing at Talladale, proceed at once to Ru Nohar, at the head of Loch Maree, and after spending an hour there may return by the steamer and be again landed at Talladale about or before three P.M.; or this excursion may be made apart from and on a different day to the voyage to Tollie and back. Either way luncheon should be taken to Ru Nohar, as there is scarcely time to visit the Kenlochewe Hotel for that purpose. This expedition is described in Part IV., chap. xiii.

The boating excursions from the Loch Maree Hotel, Talladale, are almost endless. The shores of Loch Maree, within a distance of four or five miles from the hotel, may be best surveyed and examined from a boat. It is usually the angler who adopts this means of locomotion, but those who are sketching or seeking for fresh points of view will find a boat equally suitable.

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X. EXCURSIONS FROM GAIRLOCH

The following drives may be taken from the Gairloch Hotel.

1. To any of the places on the road on the south side of the Gairloch (see "Tables of distances"). Leaving the county road at the Kerry bridge, an estate road strikes off to the right, and passes picturesque natural birch woods, with a fine view of Bathais or Bus Bheinn over the moorland to the left. In the narrow ravine as we approach Shieldaig is an interesting "junction" of the Archæan gneiss and the Cambrian conglomerate. It is described in Part III., chap. ix. At Shieldaig is the pretty lodge leased by Mr J. Bateson, the Marquis of Bristol, and Mr A. Hamond. The garden is brilliant with choice flowers, even as seen from the road. Shieldaig is placed in a secluded little bay called Loch Shieldaig, in which are two islands. The road ascends, and a mile further the hamlet of Leac nan Saighead lies to the right. Close to the shore at Leac nan Saighead may still be seen the spot where Donald Odhar and his brother Iain Odhar concealed themselves and nearly four hundred yards away is Fraoch Eilean, or "the heather island," where so many of the M'Leods were slain by the arrows of those Macrae heroes (Part I., chap. xii.). Kenneth Fraser, who has probably as large a store of the old traditions and legends of Gairloch as any other inhabitant, lives at Leac nan Saighead. The road now strikes inland, and skirts Loch Badachro, at the north-western corner of which the rocky Badachro river leaves the loch for its short course to the sea. It is a remarkably picturesque little river, with its rocky bed and banks, and its overhanging trees. The fishing of the loch and river are let with Shieldaig. Passing the farmhouse of Badachro we soon come in sight of the village of Badachro, at the head of an almost landlocked bay shut in by islands, one of them the considerable Eilean Horisdale or Thorisdale, so called after the Norse god Thor. The Dry Island is joined to the mainland at low tide. Here are two fish-curing stations, Badachro being the centre of the important cod-fishery of Gairloch (Part II., chap. ix.). After leaving Badachro the road again strikes inland, and passes a loch, fully half a mile in length, called Loch Bad na h' Achlais. Another mile brings us to the straggling village of Port-Henderson; and again another mile over a rugged and boulder-bestrewed moor and we are on the sandy hill overlooking the pretty bay of Opinan, where there is a fine sandy beach. On the headland between Port-Henderson and Opinan is the Uamh nam Freiceadain (mentioned in Part I., chaps. xii. and xxi.). A short distance to the north of this place there is on the seashore a large cave, which is worth a visit; it is called Uamh an Oir. It has a fine entrance; it branches off right and left; the branch to the left can be followed for about forty yards, that to the right is not so deep. In the village of Opinan are the board school and volunteer armoury, the latter an iron house. A little beyond the village, to the south, is the new Free church, which is a mission church or chapel-of-ease in connection with the parent Free church of Gairloch. It is a plain and substantial building of recent erection. You cannot drive further than South Erradale, but the road beyond is well worth exploration on foot. Some of the inhabitants can point out the green spot in a hollow where the two Macleod fratricides were slain and buried (page 26). The village of South Erradale, with its stream called the Red River, is about a mile beyond Opinan. Two of the dwelling-houses are built of turf. At the upper end of the crofts are the Garradh Iaruinn, or "iron dyke," and other evidences of bog iron (see page 87). About three miles further we come to the farm of Point, or Red Point, where is also much bog iron. Along all this route are magnificent views of the Torridon mountains, of the island of Rona, and of the shores and mountains of Skye, which last are much nearer and more plainly seen than from the Gairloch Hotel. The rocky coast, with the primitive houses of the people, the rough moorland, and the background of rugged mountains, give to this expedition the charm of great wildness. Your charioteer can rest his horses at Opinan or South Erradale whilst you walk further on.

2. To any of the places on the road running along the north side of the Gairloch (see "Tables of distances"). This expedition may be done by carriage as far as Melvaig. Leaving the Gairloch Hotel by the county road going in the direction of Poolewe we turn off to the left at Achtercairn. Passing the police-station and the board school on the right, we are quickly on the sea-shore. Turn to the right, and cross the curious narrow wooden bridge over the Achtercairn river or burn. To the right, a little way from the road, is the manse of Gairloch (Part I., chap. xvi.), and then the fishing village of Strath or Smithstown is entered, at the back of which there was formerly much bog iron. There are two good merchants' shops, a boat-building yard, several shoemakers' shops, and a meal-mill. The straggling village of Lonmor lies to the right of and above the road after we pass Strath. Here plenty of bog iron is still to be met with (Part I. chap. xx.). Except for the views of the Gairloch, with Skye in the distance, the road is now uninteresting for a mile or two. It bends to the north at Carn Dearg House (Mr Corson), which is a peculiar building, close to the road, with an enormous red-tiled roof. Below the house is a low rocky cliff, of a reddish colour. About a mile inland are the Sitheanan Dubha, or "fairies' hills."

A little beyond Carn Dearg is a fine sandy bay, and half a mile from the shore is the island of Longa. It is more than a mile in length; in ancient times it was a retreat of the Norse vikings (Part I., chap. i.). From Carn Dearg the road strikes inland due north, passing the farm of Little Sand on the left, and beyond that again around a large sandy bay the village called Big Sand. Among the first sandhills you come to on the farm of Little Sand may be seen some thin pans of bog iron (Part I., chap. xx.). More than a mile further on, close to the new board school, the road bends again towards the west. The hill to the right is Meall na Glaice Daraich (522 feet), and then further on, to the left between the road and the sea, lies the township of North Erradale. The building near the road, with its clump of trees, was formerly the schoolhouse; it is now used as a place of worship. Among the crofts of North Erradale some remains of bog iron pans are met with (Part I., chap. xx.). At the shore, below the village, is a rocky cove enclosing a shingly beach, where the people keep their boats.

A little to the north of this is a wonderful cave, known as Uamh an Oir. It is said that ages ago twelve men, headed by a piper, marched into the cave, the piper playing a lively strain; they were to search for the precious metal; the party are believed to have wandered for miles among the windings of the cavern; the music of the bagpipes was heard underground as far away as the village of Strath, Gairloch, but neither the piper nor any of the men ever came back; it is supposed "they forgot to turn." Further details of this story are given by some, who connect it with an old song well-known in the Argyleshire and other Highlands. I have explored the cave, candle in hand, as far as to where the passage narrows. Before the narrow part is reached there is a large chamber, in which are traces of fires said to have been used for the illicit distillation of whisky. The cavern appeared to expand again beyond the narrow place. They say the cave may be explored a long way further, but Mr Corson tells me he cannot discover any passage. The cave is well worth a visit. Lights must be provided, and care be taken that return to the outer world is not delayed by the tide, which for two hours before and after high water prevents access to or from the cave unless a boat be at hand.

From North Erradale a long stretch of road conducts the traveller towards the north. The hamlets of Peterburn and Altgreshan are passed, and at last the village of Melvaig is reached. It has a good school, and is placed on the top of a rocky cliff, of no great height but so steep that the shore below can only be safely reached by those who are acquainted with the place and have a ladder. There is a cave on the shore, which has been used for illicit distillation. There are magnificent views of the Minch and its islands from Melvaig and near it. It is well worth walking three miles north of Melvaig along the cliffs to Rudha Reidh, or the Seann Rudha as it is often called by the natives. About a mile from Melvaig any inhabitant will point out the "leac," or large flat stone, from the shelter of which Fionnla Dubh nan Saighead and his friend Chisholm let fly their arrows at the crew of Macleod's birlinn (Part I., chap. xii.). Two or three picturesque burns are passed, and the cliffs gradually rise to a height of 300 feet. Rudha Reidh itself is a fine headland of reddish rocks, with a very picturesque bay to the right, exhibiting on a sunny day remarkable contrasts of colour, the sands being white, the rocks and cliffs black and red, and the sea intense emerald green streaked with purple. Looking over the cliffs some detached masses of rock are seen standing in the sea. One square rock is called Stac Buidhe, or "the yellow stack," from the brilliant orange-coloured lichens growing upon it. It is the breeding-place of a few gulls and other sea birds. Twenty miles away due west the Shiant Isles are visible. Return by the same route. Your horses will require a rest at Melvaig.

These are the principal drives from the Gairloch Hotel, but several shorter drives may be made with great advantage on the county road in the direction of the pass leading to Slatadale on Loch Maree. I can recommend the drives to Kerrysdale or to the Kerry Falls, or still further to Loch Bad na Sgalaig and Feur Loch, or to the head of the pass, whence a magnificent view of Loch Maree and its islands is obtained.

It is a good drive also to Poolewe (Part IV., chap. vi.), and the drives recommended in the next chapter to be made from Poolewe may be conveniently taken from the Gairloch Hotel (Part IV., chap. xi.).

Undoubtedly the chief excursion to be made from the Gairloch Hotel is that on Loch Maree. Carriages leave the Gairloch Hotel about ten a.m., and convey passengers to Tollie pier. The road to Tollie is described in Part IV., chap. vi. Hence the voyage of the Mabel is made (Part IV., chap. xiii.), and the party can return to the Gairloch Hotel by five P.M. the same day.

There are very pleasant expeditions to be made by boat on the Gairloch, not only by anglers but by those who wish to explore this fine bay and its interesting shores and islands. You may land on the island called Fraoch Eilean and see the graves of the Macleods, nearly three centuries old (Part I., chap. xii.); or you may go into Loch Badachro and learn all about its cod fishery; or you may venture as far as the rocky shores of the wild island of Longa. The angler will get good sport in the Gairloch, either trolling or with hand lines (Part IV., chap. xvi.).

Of walks there are many about Gairloch. A short but steep stroll, affording splendid views, is that up the hill behind the hotel, called the Kirk hill. Another short walk is to explore the villages of Achtercairn and Strath. If the salmon fishing be going on, a visit to the salmon station at Achtercairn may lead to the acquisition of interesting information on the subject; or the sergeant-instructor of the Gairloch volunteers will obligingly show the armoury he has charge of. Other strolls are to Strath and Lonmor, or to the large sandy beach below the Gairloch Established church. This latter may include the old Gairloch churchyard, where so many of the Gairloch family of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are buried, as well as many of the bards and pipers, and where is also the tombstone of John Hay, discussed in Part I., chap. xviii.; this walk may also include an examination of the Cnoc a Croiche (Part II., chap. iv.), and of the Dun, and remains of the vitrified fort (Part I., chaps. vi., vii., xi., and xxi.) at the further end of the large sandy beach. Below the rocks, and on the face of them, at the extreme east end of the sandy beach, is a remarkable junction, where the Archæan gneiss and the Cambrian conglomerate or breccia actually touch each other. This stroll may be prolonged to Port na Heile, where the Gairloch pier is situated. Another and a longer walk is to take the old road, to the left, at the south end of the bridge at Ceann an t' sail, where the post-office is, and then follow this old road until it joins the county road a little below Loch Bad na Sgalaig. The return walk from Loch Bad na Sgalaig may be varied by taking the present county road back to the Gairloch Hotel viâ the Kerry Falls, Kerrysdale and Charlestown. The old road is rough, and most visitors will find it best to walk both to and from the Kerry Falls by the county road, and I certainly advise this as preferable in every way. Other rambles in the neighbourhood of the Gairloch Hotel may be made along the sea-shore, in both directions, and on the nearer parts of the roads already described. Anglers will enjoy the fishing on Loch Tollie.

Students of geology will find many places about Gairloch that are well worth examination (see Part III., chap. ix.). Dr Geikie, in his "Geological Sketches," writes as follows of the interesting geological facts of the neighbourhood of the Gairloch Hotel. He says:--"Behind the new hotel at Gairloch the ground rises steeply into a rocky bank of the old gneiss. Along the base of these slopes the gneiss (which is here a greenish schist) is wrapped round with a breccia of remarkable coarseness and toughness. We noticed some blocks in it fully five feet long. It is entirely made up of angular fragments of the schist underneath, to which it adheres with great tenacity. Here again rounded and smoothed domes of the older rock can be traced passing under the breccia. On the coast, immediately to the south of the new Free church, a series of instructive sections lays bare the worn undulating platform of gneiss, with its overlying cover of coarse angular breccia."

More distant excursions to places described in connection with Talladale, Kenlochewe, Poolewe, and Aultbea--either drives, walks, or boating expeditions--may be taken from Gairloch, by utilising the Loch Maree steamer, or the public mail-car, or by hiring; in fact all the expeditions recommended to be made from any of those places may be worked from the Gairloch Hotel.

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