352 



already mentioned, furnishes abundance of Allium vineale, with Ver- 

 bascum Thapsus and Habenaria albida about Glenstocking. 



From Castlehill, upon the Bay of Urr, where the trenches of an an- 

 cient fortification are still apparent, on your way up the river Urr, you 

 meet with, besides many of the more ordinary littoral plants, Schcenus 

 nigricans and Blysmus rufus, between Glenluffin and Saltflats, and 

 Zostera marina betwixt the latter and Roughisle, an appropriately 

 named islet in the estuary. Passing on betwixt the Mark and Moat 

 hills, the latter close to the shore and surmounted by some slight 

 remains of one of those curious and very ancient vitrified forts, the 

 execution of which the Scottish peasantry usually ascribe either to 

 Auld Michael, the Pechts, or to one older and more knowing than 

 either, the path, now winding fairly among the granite, conducts to a 

 point overlooking a piece of the finest scenery in the entire south of 

 Scotland, comprising the embouchure of the Urr, about three quarters 

 of a mile in breadth, above which you stand at just the proper height, 

 with Roughisle, and, on the opposite side a peninsula of Almoness 

 point, couching as if to guard the entrance to the estuary ; beyond, 

 the Isle of Hestan standing out in the firth ; the estuary itself, irregu- 

 lar in outline, indented with baylets and jutting headlands, like a 

 Highland loch ; the hills on either side, bold and precipitous, on the 

 western shore remarkably so, wooded to the water's edge, and rising 

 to a great height in Screel and the still loftier Bengairn. I saw it un- 

 der very favourable circumstances. It was one of the finest and most 

 pellucid days in autumn ; above, massive but almost transparent cu- 

 muli were reposing in a sky of the deepest azure ; the sun was bright 

 and warm, the air fresh and balmy ; below, flocks of noisy gulls cooled 

 their stilts at a picnic by 



" The bright wide coming stream 

 Of Solway's tide enlarging ;" 



the handsome peacock butterfly, the glowing Lycaena, and Hipparchia 

 Ma?garis of more sober plumage, flaunted and flickered through the 

 surrounding wilderness of red heather and golden whin ; beetles 

 dashed past in glancing mail of steelly blue ; and 



" Wild bees murmured in their mirth 

 So pleasantly it seemed the earth 

 A jubilee was keeping." 



About a mile and a half farther up the river, Colvend is bounded by 

 the adjoining parish of Urr. 



