The compilation of a handbook to the Grampian Highlands is a task of considerable complexity because of the wide field of geological subject it has to cover and the fact that, as research workers are still very active in the area, opinions are constantly being modified. While a large measure of agreement has been reached concerning major problems which, at the time of the 2nd edition, were still hotly debated, controversy in detail is by no means at an end and it is impossible to present in a handbook of this nature more than a selection of the views held. This is especially the case with the several chapters concerning the Grampian Caledonides and with that dealing with caledonian Magmatism, which have been considerably generalized in order to provide a synthesis adapted to the needs of the general reader: advanced students are referred for detail and argument to the bibliographies appended. The view has been taken that many of the diagrams should be sketch maps, constructed to assist the understanding of difficult points in the text, and since in such cases considerable simplifications of the geology have necessarily been made, they should not be regarded as substitutes for the published geological maps as a means of tracing outcrops on the ground. A list of published maps is given at the end of chapter 2, but the reader will find that the one on the scale of about 10 miles-to-one-inch may suffice for general purposes. The handbook is based to a great extent on previous editions by Drs. H. H. Read and A. G. MacGregor. Dr. J. D. Peacock has supplied notes incorporated in the sections dealing with the Old Red Sandstone, the Permian, Triassic and Jurassic and the Pleistocene. Dr. T. E. Smith compiled the General Bibliography, while Dr. N. G. Berridge assisted with the compilation of the chapter on Economic Minerals.

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