38 RECORDS OF EXCURSIONS IN AYRSHIRE. 



Returning by way of Crawfordland Burn, an examination was 

 made in the face of a small cliff of the curious U-shaped tubes 

 of the strange fossil Corophioides polyupsilon, S., occurring here 

 in great quantities, and for a description of which the 9th vol. 

 (Part II.) of the Glasgow Geological Society's Transactions may 

 be consulted. Crossing the fields to Assloss, an inspection was 

 made of the quaint little fortlet — now used as a milk-house — 

 erected by Jacob Auchinloss in 1543, a time rendered troublous 

 by the fitful border warfare between England and Scotland. 



Returning again to the Dean, we passed the old quarries, and 

 in the burn here, which flows at a much higher level than the 

 water in the quarries, there is an oil shale bed, rich in fossil fish 

 remains. The old quarries, from which sandstone was at one 

 time worked, have been rendered quite attractive by the judicious 

 planting of trees and by the presence of swans on the water. 



The Dean having again been reached, an inspection was made 

 of the old castle, which is in two detached portions, and of the 

 gardens, where the Irish yew has been utilised in forming covered- 

 in avenues. Near to the castle is the "Judas " or Justice Hill, 

 where trials are said to have taken place in baronial times. The 

 old open-cast workings of the main coal, which occur to the south 

 and west of the castle, are mistaken by some for military trenches. 



Not many plants were observed during this excursion, but 

 Epipactis latifolia, Berberis vulgaris, Lathyrus pratensis, and 

 Spircea salicifolia were noted, and growing on the walls of the 

 Dean were numerous specimens of the wall pellitory {Parietaria 

 officinalis). 



Of birds observed the following may be mentioned : — the willow- 

 wren (P/iylloscopus trochilus), many swallows (Hirundo nislica), 

 martins {Chelidon urbicd), and in the woods a number of coal-tits 

 (Parus britatmicus). 



On Saturday afternoon, 7th September, 1895, an excursion was 

 made to Rowallan and the Buston Crannog, via Kilmaurs. 



Passing through the town, which was at one time famous for its 

 cutlers, a peculiar race of men who are said to have been brought 

 from Damascus (a swarm from the Kilmaurs colony is stated to 

 have planted Sheffield as an edge-tool manufacturing town), we 

 observed the remnants of the " jugs " attached to the old court- 



