ll dusk. I had
spent several hours among its deposits when on my way to Portree, and
several hours more when on my journey across the country to the east
coast; but it may be well, for the sake of maintaining some continuity
of description, to throw together my various observations on the
formation, as if made at one time, and to connect them with my
exploration of Pabba, which took place on the following morning. The
rocks of Pabba belong to the upper part of the Lias; while the lower
part may be found leaning to the south, towards the Red Sandstones of
the Bay of Lucy. Taking what seems to be the natural order, I shall
begin with the base of the formation first.

In the general indentation of the coast, in the opening of which the
island of Pabba lies somewhat like a long green steam-boat at anchor,
there is included a smaller indentation, known as the Bay or Cove of
Lucy. The central space in the cove is soft and gravelly; but on both
its sides it is flanked by low rocks, that stretch out into the sea in
long rectilinear lines, like the foundations of dry-stone fences. On the
south side the rocks are red; on the north they are of a bluish-gray
color; their hues are as distinct as those of the colored patches in a
map; and they represent geological periods that lie widely apart. The
red rocks we find laid down in most of our maps as Old Red, though I am
disposed to regard them as of a much higher antiquity than even that
ancient system; while the bluish-gray rocks are decidedly Liasic.[3] The
cove between represents a deep ditch-like hollow, which occurs in Skye,
both in the interior and on the sea-shore, in the line of boundary
betwixt the Red Sandstone and the Lias; and it "seems to have
originated," says M'Culloch, "in the decomposition of the exposed parts
of the formations at their junction." "Hence," he adds, "from the
wearing of the materials at the surface, a cavity has been produced,
which becoming subsequently filled with rubbish, and generally covered
over with a vegetable soil of unusual depth, effectually prevents a view
of the contiguous parts." The first strata exposed on the northern side
are the oldest Liasic rocks anywhere seen in Scotland. They are composed
chiefly of greenish-colored fissile sandstones and calciferous grits, in
which we meet a few fossils, very imperfectly preserved. But the
organisms increase as we go on. We see in passing, near a picturesque
little cottage,--the only one on the s