184 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



consisting of the crews of the herring fishing-boats 

 which centre there, and of those occupied on shore 

 with the details of the great harvest of the sea. 

 Further, the erection has just been completed of the 

 factory of Mr. Nordenfeldt's Normal Company, for 

 the working-up of fish-refuse, an industry which, at 

 the Company's Aberdeen branch, has proved of a 

 remunerative character. 



The Island of Barra is the most fertile of the 

 Hebrides. Though the Laurentian gneiss of which 

 its rock-formation is composed crops out in all 

 directions, it is emphatically a green isle, having 

 excellent pasturage, and, together with Vatersay, 

 furnishing luxuriant grazing for large numbers of 

 sheep and cattle. As there is but little heather 

 on the higher ground, grouse are scarce, and the 

 island is free from the care of a gamekeeper. 



I had the opportunity of being in Barra for a 

 week at the beginning of July last. My object in 

 particular was to have some marine dredging in 

 the Minch, but the weather proved so stormy that 

 only on two days could the intention be carried out. 

 As the period was that of neap-tides, when little 

 shore-work could be done, I decided on paying some 

 attention to the botany of the Island, and on making 

 as complete a catalogue as possible of its vascular 

 plants. 



Nowhere in Scotland, perhaps, is there to be found 

 within so small a number of square miles, a greater 

 variety of situation, with corresponding opportunity 

 for a varied flora, than here. The Island may be 

 said to be mountainous, its highest peak, Ben 

 Heaval, attaining an altitude of 1,260 feet; but over 

 its area and around its coast we have all the 

 variety of grassy slope and rocky height, moorland 

 and peat-bog, crofting patch and farm land, precipi- 

 tous sea-cliff and sandy shore, marshy meadow and 

 weedy loch — woodland and forest alone being con- 

 spicuous by their absence. 



On the eastern side the crofts descend to the sea, 



