On the Tertiary Deposits of the Moray Firth and the Great Caledonian Valley, with a brief notice of the Older Formations

Abstract

Abstract T he district which is the subject of the present memoir has been rendered familiar to geologists by the labours of Professor Sedgwick and Sir R. I. Murchison*, whose descriptions have reference to the older rocks, and to their connection with equivalents in the English system. Very valuable additions have since been made to these records by Mr. George Anderson of Inverness, and Mr. Hugh Miller, whose accurate local knowledge, both written and oral, I was privileged to avail myself of. My attention however was chiefly directed to the distribution of the boulder-clays and the gravels of the tertiary series, and on these I venture at this time to offer a few remarks. Still, as introductory to a description of these more recent deposits, it may be useful to take a hasty view of the general physical contour of the country. A very cursory glance at the condition of its surface must convince us that enormous denudation has occurred over the district under consideration. The now isolated masses of old red conglomerate, perched on mountain summits, must clearly at one time have formed continuous strata. We may instance particularly the fine dome-shaped mountain Mealfourvonie, on the western side of Loch Ness, rising upwards of 3000 feet above the sea. Craigora, rising to the height of 1500 feet above Temple, on the west side of the Bay of Urquhart on Loch Ness, is a round detached mass of old red conglomerate, which was obviously at one time connected with Mealfourvonie. Both these