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widely in those from the neighbouring red sandstone basin of Dum- 

 fries. And Mr. Fraser, who knows the ground better, and possesses 

 much greater experience in such matters than I can pretend to, is of 

 opinion that it will yet reward his industry with several rare species ; 

 Primula farinosa, for example, which grows on the opposite side of 

 Solway, within sight of his parish. 



The parish ot Colvend extends along the south-eastern coast of the 

 Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, nearly from the point of Southerness to the 

 estuary of the river Urr. It is bounded on the north and north-west 

 by the group of granitic hills which occupies, with the exception of a 

 narrow border along the bed of the Nith and the shore of the frith 

 that receives its waters, the entire south-western corner of Kirkcud- 

 brightshire. These hills are generally rounded in the centre, or approach 

 in form to flattened domes, rising at one point to the height of 610 

 yards, and again appearing to the west of the Urr for a short distance. 

 The granite of which they are composed " is usually of the variety 

 termed sienite, a compound of gray quartz, grayish white or rarely 

 red felspar and green hornblende, often linearly disposed, with black 

 or brownish mica not unfrequently added to these ingredients, and in 

 many stations passing into the regular granite." 



Along the shore the argillaceous strata so generally diffused over 

 the whole south of Scotland show themselves in a belt of greywacke, 

 narrowing as we advance westward, and offering a more varied and 

 interesting vegetation. A line a little to the northward the parish 

 road may be taken as the boundary between the primary and transi- 

 tion rocks. A short way to the east of where the water of South - 

 wick flows upon the sand, the beach, previously gently sloping to 

 the tide, becomes precipitous, the abraded hills which now rise 

 along the shore and extend westward far as the eye can reach, pre- 

 senting to the sea precipitous cliffs, ranging from 30 to 300 feet in 

 perpendicular height. Around Douglas Hall or Sandyhills Bay, a 

 gap in the " heughs," as the cliffs are locally designated, is occupied 

 by numerous sand-hills, perforated everywhere by rabbit and hornet- 

 burrows, and bound together like the Dutch dykes by the tenacious 

 roots of a thick turf of Ammophila arundinacea, glinting in its barer 

 places with the pretty flowers of Erodium cicutarium. Ruppia 

 maritima grows abundantly in the saltwater pools nearer the sea ; 

 and, on the road to the right, a single patch of Allosorus crispus, 

 in the chinks of a dry stone dyke, which I did not disturb. Proceed- 

 ing in a westerly direction beneath the heughs, which is practicable 

 at low water, you find their shelving faces decked in many parts with 



Vol. hi. 2 z 



