III. Geological Notes on Scotland.—No. I

Extract

Any Geologist travelling to Nairn, viâ Perth, will be interested (in a degree compatible with his sense of the nuisance created) in the wonderful outspread of wind-blown sand betwcen Dalwhinnie and Kingussie. I do not know any more wonderful drift of sand than is here displayed; a sand-surface so constantly in motion, that I believe it must really be in connection with the ever-shifting sand-drift of Culbin, near Elgin, which may be rightly termed the British Sahara. The nuisance caused by the constant settlement, even in the calmest weather, of this fine-grained siliceous sand upon everybody and everything passing through the district, was annoying enough, even in the old coaching days, but is increased tenfold to the traveller now that the Central Scottish Railways has superseded the more tedious method of travel; for the more rapid rate of motion raises such legions of blinding sand-atoms, that when Forres Junction was reached, a traveller is scarcely recognizable for the dust, and the vacant cushions are coated two inches deep. Indeed, I would call special attention to the Sands of Culbin, mentioned as probably being in geological connection with the shifting sands cut through by the railway, as they have afforded the best instance of a real sand-storm known in Britain; hills of blown sand, from 60 to 100 feet in height, and from 200 to 300 feet in circumference, having been formed by wind-action during a single night.