REPORTS ON EXCURSIONS. 353 



steep ' to about 450 feet above sea-level, when the Brown 

 Carrick Hills, 940 feet high and 18 miles to the south-west, 

 and Cairnsmuir of Carsphairn, 2,612 feet high, 23 miles to the 

 east of south, are pointed out to us. Leaving the highway, 

 we take a short cut across the fields, passing a farm where, 

 we were told, the tenant is about 90 years of age, and still 

 hale and hearty. 



" The first stage of our journey ended at Mr. Wright's farm, 

 Bruntwood Mains. Here we inspected his collection, of which 

 he gives me the following note : — ' One room is filled with fossils, 

 the other with rock and mineral specimens. Being on the 

 carboniferous strata, the greater part is from that series, prin- 

 cipally from the Kilmarnock coal-field and limestone quarries 

 of North Ayrshire, mostly my own collecting; many specimens 

 of tertiary fossils from England. My palaeolithic implements 

 are mostly from the Thames Valley; extinct fauna from Cress- 

 well Caves, Derbyshire; neolithic stone implements are mostly 

 from this district. When a young ploughman I turned up a 

 celt; this led me to become a collector. Mr. John Smith, in 

 his Prehistoric Ayrshire, gives an account of my finds in this 

 direction. I have also relics from the crannogs of Lochlea and 

 Buisten, Scotch elks' horns, and so on.' 



" At the farm is a Crack Willow, 68 years old, measuring 

 13 feet 1 inch at the narrowest part of the stem, about 3 feet 

 up; bole, 6 feet. 



" After discussing a good hearty tea, we set off for Craigen- 

 conner Glen, on the Cessnock Water. This stream rises on the 

 high grounds in Sorn Parish, to the south of Galston Moors. 

 At first it flows to the south-west, then due west, then south, 

 as if to join the River Ayr; but, when within 1J miles of that 

 stream, it swings round to the north-west, and, after a very 

 tortuous course, in which it boxes the compass, it falls into 

 the River Irvine, two miles below Galston. The glen is a very 

 pretty one, and we were quite pleased with our rather hurried 

 visit. The stream fortunately was low, and we were thus able 

 to walk down the glen with comparative ease. Among the 

 plants which we saw were the Herb Paris (Pa?*is quadrifolia, L.); 

 the Beech-fern {Poly podium phegopteris, L., = Phegopteris 

 polypodioides, .Fee); and the Oak-fern (P. Dryopteris, L., 



