EXCURSIONS IN STIRLINGSHIRE. 119 



Castle. The part of the castle fronting Mugdock Loch is used 

 as a residence, while behind it stands the old tower with its 

 ancient and hoary walls. The castle, though a residence of the 

 Montrose family, is distinguished neither in history nor story. 

 More interesting, at least to the botanist, is the little loch upon 

 which it looks down, where Mr. George Gardiner made the first 

 record for the district of the least yellow water-lily (Nuphar pumi- 

 lum). From a slight eminence near the castle a splendid view of 

 the terraced fronts of the Campsie Fells was obtained. The 

 weathering of the hill-faces, from its similarity to the canon scenery 

 of North America, attracted much attention. Before reaching 

 Craigallian Loch (a beautiful sheet of water lying in a sheltered 

 hollow) the pretty grass of Parnassus {Parnassia palustris) and the 

 field-gentian (Gentiana campestris) were seen. The sloe {Prunus 

 spinosa) with an abundant supply of fruit also occurred before the 

 Drymen Road was reached. 



On the 5th June, 1897, another excursion to the Whangie was 

 made by driving from the city through Maryhill and Bearsden to 

 Auchineden where the party entered the grounds by the gate- 

 house and reached the Whangie after a walk of about a mile 

 obliquely along the steep side of Auchineden Hill (a spur of the 

 Kilpatrick range), on the north-west face of which the celebrated 

 chasm, which is about 350' feet in length and 40 feet medium 

 depth, appears. Hugh Macdonald in his Rambles Round Glasgow 

 (No. XVII.) gives a well-known description of the spot. While 

 the party was examining the wonderful cleft the geologist of the 

 company gave an explanation of the occurrence. The trap-rock 

 of which the hill is composed is part of a great volcanic outburst 

 which overlies the lowest beds of the carboniferous formation — 

 the red sandstones. The sandstones, being much softer material 

 than the trap, are more easily worn when acted on by denuding 

 agencies. Hence the exposed edges of the sandstone have 

 gradually crumbled away, and the support of the harder trap 

 above being thus removed, a part of the latter has, by its own 

 weight, broken off, and slid sufficiently to open up several feet. 

 The late Mr. Dugald Bell tells us {Among the Rocks round Glasgow, 

 Chap. VII.) that — "This is no isolated or exceptional occurence; 

 the Whangie is but the last of a series, and the evidences of former 

 rock-slips strew the slope before us." The examination of the 



