290 Formation and Flora of a Shingle Island. [Sess. 



VIII. — NOTES ON THE FORMATION AND FLORA 

 OF A SHINGLE ISLAND IN THE RIVER 

 ORCHY, DALMALLY, ARGYLL. 



By Miss BEATEICE SPEAGUE. 

 {Read Dec. 20, 1905— Revised Sept. 1906.) 



Course of the Orcliy. — Before describing our Shingle Island, 

 we shall glance at the course of the Orchy itself, and 

 at one or two of its larger islands, noting what changes 

 have taken place in recent years. On flowing out of Loch 

 Tulla, the Orchy runs rapidly and turbulently through Glen 

 Orchy proper, in a narrow channel, forming some striking 

 rock scenery on its way ; but as soon as Dalmally Vale is 

 reached, the fall of the country becomes very gradual, and 

 the river spreads into wide shallows, heaping up great banks 

 of shingle, now on one side now on the other. A mile or 

 so above Inverlochy is a large wooded island ; just below 

 Dalmally bridge is another, Eilean a Phortaire, still larger, 

 and also wooded ; and immediately below the latter lies the 

 Shingle Island with which we are concerned. The Orchy 

 here flows through a cultivated strath, half a mile wide or 

 more; and the island, lying in a curve of the right bank, 

 is separated from the fields only by the six-foot drop of the 

 steep sandy bank, and by the stony bed of the winter stream 

 (which, though dry in summer, has still rushes and other 

 water-loving plants growing here and there). Immediately 

 above our island a tumble-down wall runs out obliquely 

 from the bank, deflecting the current of the river and thus 

 acting as a slight protection to the bank. This wall, or 

 breakwater, is, overgrown with young trees and other plants ; 

 in summer it is continuous with the island and the main- 

 land (down-stream), but is separated from them in winter by 

 a backwater of the river. 



Changes in recent years. — Great changes have taken place 

 in the river's course during the last forty or fifty years ; and 

 the two following maps will give some idea of what has 



