Report on the Recent Work of the Geological Survey in the North-west Highlands of Scotland, based on the Field-notes and Maps

Abstract

Introduction. I n November 1884 a brief notice or report was published of the results of the work of the Geological Survey in Sutherland. The object of that report was mainly to announce that the detailed mapping of the region had convinced us that the views entertained by our former chief, Sir Roderick Murchison, were no longer tenable. It was then intended that an official Report should soon be published, embodying the details of the survey work and containing a full digest of all that had previously been done by other observers. But the complicated structure of the region and the necessity of continuing the mapping southward along the great line of disturbance have hitherto delayed the publication of this Report. It is felt, however, that instead of further postponement until the conditions of official publication are fulfilled, it will be of advantage to publish a résumé of the chief results which the Survey has up to the present time obtained, and hence the present communication is laid before the Society. Previous Literature. In fulfilment of the promise made in the preliminary notice above referred to, we now offer an outline of the work of previous observers, chiefly with the view of showing how far our own labours have been forestalled by theirs. In 1819 Macculloch described a remarkable development of red sandstone, quartz-rocks, and limestones among the gneiss and schists of the North-west Highlands and Islands. He maintained that the red sandstones and conglomerates rest unconformably on the western gneiss