The crystalline schists consist of rocks of very varied lithological characters, some with gneissose, and others with schistose structure, and they vary in degree of acidity from ultrabasic rocks to those of acid composition. Most of them exhibit parallel structures, which in many cases can be shewn to have been impressed on the rocks subsequently to their consolidation, though this need not have occurred and probably did not occur with some of them, especially the granitoid gneisses. The researches of the members of H. M. Geological Survey have shewn that many of these rocks were originally intrusive igneous rocks, though it is not yet known into what rocks those which were first consolidated were injected, and the origin of the bulk of the schists still remains to be elucidated. Subsequently to their consolidation and before the deposition of the earliest Torridonian rocks they were subjected to more than one set of earth-movements, which folded them and impressed a series of parallel structures upon many of them; and accordingly we find that the pebbles of the crystalline schists which are found amongst the basal conglomerates of the Torridonian rocks consist of fragments which had undergone the alteration caused by these earth-movements before they were denuded from their parent-rocks[48].
[48] For an account of these rocks, their characters, and the effects of earth movement upon them, the reader should consult a "Report on the Recent Work of the Geological Survey in the North-West Highlands of Scotland": Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. XLIV. p. 378.
The Torridonian system is composed of rocks which are largely of arenaceous character, the most prominent beds being formed of red sandstones, and the bulk of the fragments in them have clearly been derived by denudation from the crystalline schists, many of the beds being composed of arkose, where the quartz is mixed with a large proportion of felspar and often of ferro-magnesian minerals. The deposits are clearly sedimentary, and are as little altered as many strata of much more recent origin, only possessing structures produced by metamorphic action under exceptional circumstances. The detailed researches of the geological surveyors prove that the rocks of this system have a much greater thickness and are of more varied lithological characters than was previously supposed. The total thickness of the strata is over 10,000 feet, and the sandstones are associated with deposits of a muddy character, and with occasional bands of limestone; in these circumstances the discovery of fossils would excite no surprise, and in 1891 Sir A. Geikie announced the detection of "traces of annelids and some more obscure remains of other organisms in these strata," which have not yet been described[49]. These Torridonian strata furnish us with the most satisfactory group of Precambrian sediments yet detected in Britain[50].
[49] An account of the subdivisions and lithological characters of the rocks of the Torridonian System will be found in the Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom for 1893.
[50] It has been recently maintained that some of the Torridonian rocks are of Æolian origin.
In the south-east Highlands is a great mass of crystalline schists of a less gneissose character than that of the north-west, to which Sir A. Geikie has applied the name Dalradian. Many of these schists will be found by examination of the geological map of Scotland to be separable into divisions, which by means of their lithological characters can be traced long distances across the country, and they present all the characters of sedimentary rocks, though they are associated with intrusive igneous rocks, and have undergone great metamorphic changes since their formation. Cambrian rocks have not yet been discovered immediately above them, though they are clearly older than Ordovician times, but the existence of rocks associated with them along their north-west borders, which in lithological characters closely resemble some of the rocks of the crystalline schists of the north-west Highlands, indicates the probability of their general Precambrian age. In some instances, the extreme types of metamorphism which they exhibit are the result of the kind of action usually termed pyrometamorphic as has been shewn by Mr G. Barrow[51].
[51] Barrow, G. "On an Intrusion of Muscovite-biotite gneiss in the S.E. Highlands of Scotland, and its accompanying metamorphism." Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. XLIX. p. 330.
In England and Wales the rocks which have been shewn or inferred to be Precambrian, when not intrusive, are largely of volcanic origin. The most satisfactory example of the occurrence of the Olenellus-fauna is that of the Cambrian Comley sandstone of Shropshire, which rests unconformably upon a set of rocks termed by Dr Callaway the Uriconian rocks; the latter are essentially volcanic, and strongly resemble Precambrian rocks of other British areas. There is also strong reason to suppose that the sediments to which the name Longmyndian has been applied, which have been described by the Rev. J. F. Blake, are of Precambrian age, for, as Professor Lapworth has pointed out, the three great subdivisions of the Cambrian system are present in the area under consideration, and the rocks of each are entirely different from those of the adjoining Longmynd area. In Shropshire therefore we meet with one set of volcanic rocks, and another set consisting of sedimentary rocks, of which the former is certainly, the latter almost certainly of Precambrian age, and as the Longmyndian rocks are in a comparatively unaltered condition, consisting of normal sediments, we may well expect the discovery of fossils in them also[52]. The Olenellus-fauna has been found near Nuneaton in Warwickshire in beds which unconformably succeed volcanic rocks, the Caldecote series of Prof. Lapworth, and the latter are therefore of Precambrian age[53]. A few fossils belonging to the Olenellus-fauna have occurred in the oldest Cambrian rocks of the Malvern district, and these rocks rest unconformably upon those of an old ridge which is therefore composed of Precambrian rocks. The rocks of this ridge are largely of intrusive igneous origin, though parallel structures have been impressed upon them as the result of subsequent deformation, but some of the rocks are almost certainly of contemporaneous volcanic origin[54]. In the Wrekin ridge, igneous and pyroclastic rocks are found succeeded unconformably by Cambrian rocks which resemble those of the Malvern and Nuneaton districts, and probably belong to the period of existence of the Olenellus-fauna, and these igneous and pyroclastic rocks are presumably of Precambrian age, and the contemporaneous rocks constitute Dr Callaway's typical Uriconian group. Volcanic ashes and breccias are accompanied by devitrified pitchstones and intruded granitic rocks, which may or may not be all of the same general age[55]. The rocks which have been claimed as Precambrian in Pembrokeshire and in Caernarvonshire have the same general characters as those of the Wrekin ridge. Pyroclastic rocks underlie the oldest Cambrian rocks, with discordance between the two, and associated with these pyroclastic rocks are quartz felsites which according to some are of contemporaneous nature whilst others maintain their intrusive origin. In each county granites are found which are now generally recognised to be intrusive, though there seems to be no doubt as to their being of the same general age as the rocks with which they are associated, and therefore presumably Precambrian. The Pembrokeshire rocks are marked by the occurrence of a certain amount of metamorphism, probably of more than one kind, which has converted pyroclastic volcanic rocks into sericitic-schists and quartz-felsites into hälleflintas[56]. The term Pebidian given by Dr Hicks to the contemporaneous volcanic fragmental rocks should be retained, and if these rocks be eventually shewn to be contemporaneous with similar volcanic rocks of other districts, may be applied generally, as it has priority over other terms as Uriconian and Caldecote series. The term Dimetian was applied to rocks known to be intrusive, and must be dropped as a chronological term, whilst the existence of an Arvonian system separate from the Pebidian system is not fully proved.
[52] The reader may consult a paper by Prof. Lapworth "On Olenellus Callavei and its geological relationships," Geol. Mag. Dec III. vol. VIII. p. 529, for information concerning the relationship of the Olenellus beds of Shropshire to the more ancient rocks; the Uriconian rocks are described by Dr Callaway in a series of papers, especially in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. XXXV. p. 643, vol. XXXVIII. p. 119, vol. XLII. p. 481 and vol. XLVII. p. 109, whilst the lithological characters of the Longmyndian rocks are described by the Rev. J. F. Blake (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. XLVI. p. 386).
[53] See Lapworth, C., "On the sequence and systematic position of the Cambrian rocks of Nuneaton," Geol. Mag. Dec III. vol. III. p. 319; and Waller, T. H., "Preliminary Note on the Volcanic and Associated Rocks of the neighbourhood of Nuneaton," ibid. p. 322.