Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 4.djvu/176

 at some defiance. It is possible to reconcile them only by supposing that the red sandstone series belongs to the primary rocks, and the whole of these strata which extend from the point of Sleat to the limestone of Strath, will thus form a succession of rocks alternating with and graduating into each other. That the gneiss is a primary rock can, I imagine, admit of no dispute.

In formerly describing the limestone district, I expressed my expectation that the strata of Kilbride and those at the entrance of Loch Eishort would be found identical with those at Broadford, and that expectation has been realized by a complete examination of the district in question.

On the Broadford shore the commencement of the limestone beds is found near a small farm called Lucy, but their actual contact with the sandstone cannot be seen, on account of a sandy beach which covers the junction. It is probable that some conglomerate exists in this interval, as detached masses of such a rock are found in different places in the hilly grounds between Strath and Loch Eishort; but I need not dwell on a circumstance so common every where that it can scarcely fail to be present here. As the inclinations of the sandstone and limestone are in the same direction near this junction, the latter however dipping only five degrees to the north-west while the former dips ten, there can be no doubt but that they are connected in the usual regular order of succession.

From this, which I shall call the lowest line of the limestone, it can be traced under various interruptions along a high ridge of hills to Loch Eishort, where it coincides with the beds formerly described as found there. Independently of this connection, the identity of the whole is proved by the correspondence of the organic remains, which at Broadford however are more abundant than on the opposite side. The principal difference at the two extremities consists in the numerous beds of shale and sandstone that