Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univ).pdf/18
The oldest or doleritic dykes form a wonderful feature in the gneiss, from their abundance, persistence and uniformity of trend in a west-northwest direction. They have no parallel in British Geology until we reach the crowded dykes of older Tertiary time.
Throughout this remarkable complex of eruptive material, though its different portions present many features that may be compared with those of intrusive bosses and sheets belonging to later geological periods, there is no trace of any superficial volcanic manifestation. No tuffs or agglomerates or slaggy lavas have been detected, such as might serve to indicate the ejection of volcanic materials to the surface. All the phenomena of the Lewisian gneiss point to the consolidation of successively protruded portions of eruptive material at some depth within the crust.
Nevertheless it may yet be possible to show that these deep seated masses have been injected into rocks of older date and of sedimentary origin, and that they have communicated with the surface in true volcanic eruptions. I have already alluded to one limited area where various rocks exist, distinctly different from the prevalent types in the Lewisian gneiss. In the area which is traversed by the long valley of Loch Maree in western Rosshire, there occur clay-slates, fine mica schists, graphitic schists, and saccharoid limestones. These rocks remind us of some of the prevalent members of a series of metamorphosed sediments. The minerals enclosed in the marbles are just such as might be expected in the metamorphic aureole of a granite boss, piercing limestone. But the relations of this group of rocks to the ordinary gneiss of the region are not quite so clear as could be desired, though they seem to point to these rocks being surrounded by and enclosed within the gneiss.
The detailed field-work of the officers of the Geological Survey has made known the remarkable amount of mechanical deformation which the various rock-masses composing the Lewisian gneiss have undergone. These rocks have been compressed, crushed, and drawn out, until what were originally mas-