BUTE AND ARRAX. 5 



breadth is about 3 miles, and its circumference about 35 miles. 

 Including Inchmarnock, which lies west of it about a mile and 

 a half, its total area is 31,836*475 acres. Its highest summit is 

 Kames Hill, which is 875 feet above sea-level ; and there are in 

 it three lochs of some extent, viz., Loch Fad, 2^ miles long by 

 ^ mile broad, Loch Ascog, and Quien Loch. 



Naturally and geologically the island is di\dded into four dis- 

 tinct sections. The Garrochhead, forming the extreme south, is 

 composed of steep rugged hills ; trap rock protrudes itself on 

 every hand, and imparts to the scene, as viewed from the water, 

 a very fierce aspect. Proceeding north, the second division, lying 

 betw^een Eothesay Bay and Kilchattan Bay on the one hand and 

 Scalpsie Bay on the other, is composed with slight exceptions of 

 red sandstone. The third division, extending from Scalpsie Bay 

 to Ettrick Bay, consists of chlorite slate ; and the fourth division, 

 from Ettrick Bay to the Kyles of Bute, is composed almost entirely 

 of micaceous schist. The mineral deposits of the island are lime, 

 coal, and slate, but all are of an inferior quality. 



The following description of the island, as one views it from 

 the steamer's deck when sailing round it, will give a general idea 

 of its fertility, and the measure of its agricultural enterprise. 

 Sailing from Eothesay northwards through the Kyles, before us 

 lie patches of cultivated soil beautifully laid out and lying well 

 to the sun, and alternating with these, little bits of moorland 

 covered with heather and whins. The land ascends gently 

 almost from the water's edge, and the further west one sails 

 through the narrow strait between the island and Argyllshire, 

 the little cultivated plots on it become fewer and fewer, till, at 

 the point of tlie island facing Loch Bidden, it presents one mass 

 of almost barren rocks, on which grow a few patches of scraggy 

 wood. Indeed, tlie extreme north end of Bute may be said to be 

 almost uncultivated and unprohtable for cultivation. 



Turning round the Buttock Point, the agriculturist soon finds 

 as he skirts tlie west side, that here farming is prosecuted with 

 energy, and that a somewhat cold and unkindly soil is made to 

 yield crops of fair average quality. In Ettrick Bay and Scalpsie 

 Bay, and up the straths which intersect the island from Ettrick 

 Bay to Kames Bay, and from Scalpsie Bay to Eothesay Bay, the 

 soil is much more kindly, and in the valleys patches of fertile 

 loam relieve the monotony of shar]) sandy till wbich prevails 

 throughout the island. 



The south end, with the exception of the extreme south, is 

 well under cultivation, and Inchmarnock grows splendid barley 

 crops. Bounding the Garroch Head, Kilchattan ])ay })ursts 

 upon the view, with the beautifully wooded slopes of Mountstuart 

 and Kingarth. In the bay, and ou the slopes and over the 

 brows of the hills, the soil, which is of a sliav]) gravelly nature, 



