1863.] BOTANICAL LETTERS FROM ARGYLESHIRE. 483 



at a moment before the animal, he pulled from his pocket a 

 small German musical instrument, sounded it aloud in all its 

 variations, when the bull, as if cowed and frightened, took to 

 his heels with some half-dozen cows, with tails erect, never look- 

 ing behind until they got among some trees and brushwood at 

 the bottom of the valley. Our pleasure-seeker and botanist has- 

 tened with all speed to gain the top of the glen, which as he 

 reached, he sat down on a bank to have a fall view of his enemy, 

 which now, as if ashamed of his cowardice, had come out of the 

 thicket, and was roaring and bellowing, and tearing a mound of 

 earth with his horns, lifting his head now and again, and taking 

 a long look towards the top of the valley, where our friend was 

 now seated, quite composed, rather thankful that he had escaped 

 a bull-fight, and now enjoying a magnificent view as well as a 

 refreshing breeze. Right before him was the Campbeltown har- 

 bour, with all its shipping, and villas skirting its north bank, 

 ■with all the undulations and variety of hill, dale, and homesteads 

 beyond, as far as the distant mountains of Cowal, as also the 

 Sound of Kilbranson ; the island of Arran itself, a splendid 

 field for either botanist or geologist, as well as the dark, heathy 

 hills of Glenlussa. The sun was high, and the day now warm, 

 while the beautiful sky above presented pure serenity itself. 

 Our hero could not get the effect of his instrument on the bull 

 out of his head. It was so sudden as to be more a matter 

 almost of instinct. The effects, however, of sounds upon insects 

 and animals is sometimes as varied as the sounds themselves. It 

 is something on this principle old apiarians used to beat a girdle 

 or a tin vessel, with the view of stopping the fiight of bees hiving, 

 — whether with effect in that respect I cannot pretend to affirm. 

 Our rambler had now rested himself, and saw that he was 

 quite beyond the reach of his adversary, who seemed now to 

 have expended his rage and fury on the mound of earth; so 

 rising from his seat, he was soon on the ridge of the hill, leaving 

 Glenramskill in the rear, and treading on new ground, moor, 

 heath, and bog. He felt buoyant and light, and although the 

 day was warm, the cool mountain-breeze tempered the heat of 

 that summer noonday. He shortly reached a conical knoll 

 covered with heath, forming the highest spot at that point ; and 

 as he stood to breathe for a few moments, he was captivated by 

 the expansive river and scener}^ now before, bounding in the ex- 



