12 PARENTAGE AND YOUTH CHAP, i 



ing still stands as part of the offices of the Castle. 

 The deserted pump-well remains to mark the centre 

 of the life of the vanished hamlet. A large hotel, 

 with waiters and other products of modern civili- 

 sation, has since risen at Invercloy, on the south 

 side of the bay, together with many slated houses ; 

 while the inns all over the island, as well as the 

 farm-houses and cottages, have been much enlarged 

 and improved. The young visitors of to-day would 

 probably look with disdain on the humble cots where 

 their mothers and grandmothers were contented and 

 happy. But it may be doubted whether the charms 

 of this most delightful of islands are more appreciated 

 than they were in old days when the enjoyment of 

 them was coupled with discomforts now happily 

 removed. 



Since the early decades of this century Arran has 

 enjoyed a special reputation as a field for geological 

 study. Its mountainous northern half has been held 

 to represent the main structural features of the Scottish 

 Highlands, while its southern half has been regarded 

 as affording examples of the younger formations, and 

 especially of the igneous rocks, which form a con- 

 spicuous feature in the geology as well as the scenery 

 of the southern part of the opposite mainland. It has 

 been described as affording an epitome of the geology 

 of Scotland, with all the salient points of structure 

 comprised within such narrow compass, and so clearly 

 displayed as to afford exceptional facilities for practical 

 investigation. Its coast-line supplies an almost con- 

 tinuous section of the rocks, with admirable exposures 

 of their various structures and relations to each other. 

 Its streams, too, coursing for ages from the watershed 

 to the sea, have trenched their channels into the solid 



