Geological sketches, at home and abroad . him the peculiar cliffsof the Caithness flagstones. At one point he is confrontedwith gleaming precipices and steep acclivities of whiteglistening quartzite, at another he beholds vast sea-walls ofa sombre dull red sandstone, even more colossal than thosecf Caithness, but wanting in those charms of light andshade, wealth of colour, and multiplicity of detail in form,which give the flagstone scenery so defined a the greatest contrast is to be seen among thegneiss precipices of Cape Wrath. That north-western head-land of Scotland is com
Geological sketches, at home and abroad . him the peculiar cliffsof the Caithness flagstones. At one point he is confrontedwith gleaming precipices and steep acclivities of whiteglistening quartzite, at another he beholds vast sea-walls ofa sombre dull red sandstone, even more colossal than thosecf Caithness, but wanting in those charms of light andshade, wealth of colour, and multiplicity of detail in form,which give the flagstone scenery so defined a the greatest contrast is to be seen among thegneiss precipices of Cape Wrath. That north-western head-land of Scotland is composed of the oldest rock in Britain,and one that from its tough, massive, gnarled aspect is wellworthy of its position as the foundation on which thegeological structure of these islands has been into a range of singularly scarped and rugged cliffs,it bears the full brunt of every storm that sweeps across theopen Atlantic. Every weak part of its framework is dis-covered by the powerful battery of breakers, and is hollowed. 38 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. into tunnel, cave, or gully, while the harder parts tower upinto fantastic columns or buttresses. It possesses no sym-metry of structure like that of bedding and jointing amongthe flagstones. Huge tortuous veins of a coarse kind ofgranite run up the face of the cliffs, reminding one of theprominent sinews of some antique statue (Fig. 4). Themain mass of the rock through which these veins interlaceis of a dull dusky green or livid gray, while the veins them-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeology, bookyear1882
