Flora of Colonsay and Oransay. 67 



the two combined is about 12, and the breadth varies from 

 2^ to 3 miles. Both are somewhat low lying, having no 

 great altitude, the principal elevation being a hill called 

 Car-a-JMor, near the middle of the Island of Colonsay, which 

 lias a height of 437 feet above sea-level. 



The surface of these islands may be described as mostly 

 rugged ; but there is a wide central valley in Colonsay, 

 where there is considerable cultivation, and in this valley 

 or strath is situated Loch Fada, the principal sheet of water 

 on the island, which at one period was probably of much 

 greater extent than at present, as it evidently has been 

 drained, by the bed of the stream which flows from it 

 having been deepened ; and it is somewhat remarkable that 

 tliis stream, which has a comparatively strong flow of water 

 and has only a short coarse, partially disappears before it 

 reaches the sea in the sand at the head of Kiloran Bay. From 

 this cause salmon or sea trout cannot run up, and Loch Fada 

 is only known for its brown trout, which are supposed 

 to have been put into it by the monks, who had their 

 headquarters at Oransay, but had two dependent chapels on 

 Colonsay. These trout are said to be the same as are 

 found in Loch Leven,but if so, they have sadly degenerated, 

 and there are few points of resemblance between them and 

 their supposed relatives in Kinross-shire. This loch, about 

 a mile and a quarter long, is divided into three parts ; the 

 northern and central parts being divided by the public 

 road, which is carried along the top of an artificial embank- 

 ment, but at the western point of this work there is a cut- 

 ting or canal connecting these two sections of the Loch, 

 which is bridged over. The southern section is divided from 

 the central division by a dense bed of NynwpliKa alba, which 

 is quite impenetrable to a boat ; and as visitors, unless 

 guests at Colonsay House, are only allowed to fish the 

 central division, it was in this section alone that I collected 

 any aquatic plants. 



Having less than four working days on the islands, these 

 were very fully employed, and we were unable to visit the 

 northern and south-western parts of Colonsay ; but of the re- 

 mainder of their surface, the only cultivated spots we saw 

 were a few fields at or near Scallasaig, and a track of sandy 

 soil on the s-Aithern portion of Oransay. It was evident 



