78 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



to pasture is partly dry, and partly moist and spongy ; and a considerable portion 

 of that which is cither flat or hilly, is covered with heath. The summits of 

 the highest hills are generally naked rocks, destitute of all vegetation. 



After the " Jurisdiction Act," in 1748, the county underwent many alterations 

 and improvements. Roads were made in every direction ; the climate was more 

 studied, and the grain best suited to its peculiarities introduced and cultivated. 

 Villages sprang up ; industry received a new impulse, and a favourable change 

 diffused itself over the whole province. This county, however, furnishes but a 

 small proportion of arable land, compared with its mountain pastures, where 

 the breeding of sheep and black cattle is carried on with success, and now forms 

 the principal branch of export. The natural wood with which the district was 

 originally covered, and of which every peat-moss at various depths exhibits gigan- 

 tic remains, has greatly diminished, but will soon be remedied by those extensive 

 plantations with which the resident proprietors have so liberally enriched and 

 beautified the country. Lime is found in almost every part of the county ; and, 

 in Lismore particularly, it forms a durable cement under water, not unlike 

 that of Pozzuoli, near Naples. In Easdale and Ballachulish are excellent slate 

 quarries, with every convenience for export by water. In the limestone and 

 other strata, veins of lead are often met with, which are wrought both in Islay 

 and Strontian. At the latter, a new species of earth* strontites\vas discovered 

 in 1791, by Dr. Hope, whose labours have thrown new light on the science 

 of chemistry, and established for him a lasting reputation among the first philo- 

 sophers of the age. 



Our principal object, however, is the "scenery" of the country; and in this 

 respect Argyll presents a splendid series, in which all the varieties of sea and 

 lake, frith and forest, mountain rocks, castellated ruins, and modern mansions, 

 are brought forward into striking contrast, or harmoniously blended. In every 

 district of the county, but especially on the west border of Loch-long, and on 

 both sides of Loch-goil, the scenery presents unrivalled pictures of alpine gran- 



For some time the mineral which contained this earth was considered to be merely a variety of tvitherite, 

 or carbonate of barytes ; and this opinion was adopted by Pelletier, even after he had submitted a portion of 

 it to chemical analysis. Dr. Hope, however, from some peculiarities which be had observed in the action of 

 mineral acids upon the substance in question, strongly suspected the truth of this opinion, and having insti- 

 tuted a series of ingenious experiments, the results fully proved that the mineral from Strontian contained an 

 earth different in its property from every other earth. The mineral from which it is obtained occurs massive 

 and crystalled ; but it is generally of a fibrous texture, and of a pale asparagus green colour, although it 

 has sometimes been found transparent and colourless. It is soft, yielding readily to the knife, and show- 

 ing wedge-shaped fragments. Its specific gravity is 3. 675. Dr. Hope's memoir on its properties and 

 combinations, with the detail of his experiments, are printed in the fourth volume of " The Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Transactions." 



