1862.] BOTANICAL LETTERS EKOM ARGYLESHIRE. 99 



meadoWj discharging itself into the sea behind the town. This 

 hamlet is said to be the birthplace of Burns's Highland Mary ; 

 her parents' cottage, rebnilt, is still pointed out. By ascending 

 to the top of White Hill or the Gallow Hill, two conical hills 

 in the neighbom'hood, some beautiful views can be obtained. A 

 considerable sprinkling of wood and hedgerows at this point add 

 much to the beauty of the locality. Leaving this hamlet and the 

 Whinnyhill in the rear, the rambler soon passes the farms of Low 

 Knockrioch and Strath, — localities, by the way, of which I may 

 have something to say perhaps in another letter, — and reaches 

 the village of Drumlerable, chiefly inhabited by the miners em- 

 ployed at the Drumlemble colliery close by the village. Here 

 there has been erected, some two years ago, an excellent school in 

 connection with the Established Church ; and although within 

 the bounds of the parish, a missionary and the ministers of the 

 parish hold meetings on. Sabbath evenings for the aged and in- 

 firm of the miners in the schoolhouse. Passing Drumlemble, the 

 rambler soon reaches Killkerau, w here there is an ancient bury- 

 ing-ground, containing some curious stones and inscriptions, and 

 the ruins of an old chapel, presenting the same style of architec- 

 ture that all those chapels common on the west coast of Scotland 

 present. While musing on this sequestered spot for a moment, 

 reflecting on all that tradition and local history relates of this 

 chapel and its saint, the eye soon detects a beautiful variety of 

 Hedera Helix palmata clothing a part of those old walls, adding 

 much to tlie charms of the spot ; but a bitter bleak day in Janu- 

 ary is not the time to stand long musing in the fields ; the cold 

 air and hazy atmosphere make the pedestrian go ahead. Turn- 

 ing his face to the west, rising on his left are the Sossel hills, 

 forming the northern extremity of the Moile range. In the ex- 

 treme distance on the right are Ballinaglaic and Largie hills, and 

 a considerable part of the west shores of Cantyre. The islands 

 of Gigha and Cura, with the Forest mountains of South Knap- 

 dale, towering their lofty summits to the grey skies. Imme- 

 diately in front are Islay and Jura, and the broad blue Sound 

 separating them from the mainland. Proceeding a few yards 

 further on, he comes in sight of the small village of Saltpans; on 

 his right, at this point, is the Bay of Machrihanish, its finely 

 sweeping sea-margin stretching away northwards towards West 

 Ports, — a locality, I may here mention, will of itself form the 



