1882-83-] Edinburgh Naturalists Field Club. 107 



down telegraph wires, and carrying them along in cast-iron pipes 

 underground. The necessity for doing this arose from the great 

 destruction of game, caused by the birds flying against the wires. 

 It had been no uncommon thing for the keeper to find many of the 

 hill birds lying dead along the line of wire. To prevent this, by 

 removing the wire, was an act as merciful as it was wise. It is 

 sometimes said that the necessities of commerce have no law ; but 

 there is one, law to which they ought to be subject — namely, the 

 law of working, if possible, by other means than those which en 

 danger or destroy life ; and it was the operation of bringing these 

 necessities into subjection to this law that we saw so successfully 

 carried out on Shap fells in the way we have described. 



XV. — SPECIMENS OF LIZARDS FROM SOUTH AMERICA. 



Exhibited, with Remarks, by Mr P. B. GIBB, M.A., Vice-President, 

 February 22, 1882. 



The specimens exhibited were the Salimpinta, Iguana, Alligator, 

 Crocodile, and several smaller Lizards presented to Mr Gibb by a 

 gentleman lately returned from British Guiana. 



At the same meeting there was exhibited a collection of Ferns 

 and Lycopods from New Zealand, by ]\Iiss M. Fraser. 



XVI.— A DATS RAMBLE IN THE NORTHERN PART OF THE 

 ISLAND OF ARRAN, WITH NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY 

 AND BOTANY. 



By Mr W. IVISON MACADAM, F.C.S., F.I.C. 



(Read March 22, 1883.) 



The Flora, Fauna, and Geology of Arran have received so much 

 attention at the hands of so many eminent men, that the subject 

 would appear completely worked up. The island, however, is so 

 very interesting to the student of Botany, Geology, or Entomology, 

 that I may be excused for laying before you one or two points that 

 may be seen by any one undertaking the walk I describe. That 

 the island should give, for its size, results greater than any other 

 ground in the country, is easily explained when one remembers 

 that there you have the sea with its salt marshes, lowland bog 

 and highland bog, and the hard igneous rocks with their Alpine 



