ARRAN. SOIL, &C. 315 



every point of view they are equally grand and equally 

 picturesque. As the eye ranges along the steep descent 

 on which they lie, the retiring aerial perspective seems 

 almost to obscure the summit, confounding it with the 

 sky ; while the spectator can scarcely avoid making a 

 hasty retreat from a torrent of rock which seems about to 

 overwhelm him with its ruins, and which even now appears 

 in all the activity of motion. They who have had the good 

 fortune to witness the avalanche of a mountain of ice, may 

 perhaps imagine the effects of that, of which no phenome- 

 non of less grandeur can convey an adequate conception. 



It will readily be apprehended that under such a 

 variety of surface, attended with equal variety in the 

 nature of the subjacent rocks, Arran must present great 

 differences of soil, and that its agricultural features 

 will accordingly vary in different places. The hill pastures 

 of the northern division, lying on granite, are heathy and 

 unproductive ; while they are also in many places encum- 

 bered with peat and interspersed with soft bogs, the 

 consequences of imperfect drainage. Such is the height 

 and density of the heath on some of the declivities, that 

 it is difficult to force a passage through it; the desire 

 of preserving the game, consisting of grouse and black 

 cock, with which the island abounds, having induced the 

 chief proprietors to prevent the practice of burning it, 

 and the consequent stocking of those tracts with sheep ; a 

 system of pasturage which is incompatible with the exist- 

 ence of these birds. The soils on the higher parts of the 

 southern tract, present similar characters; although the 

 subjacent rocks, consisting chiefly of red sandstone, trap, 

 and claystones, of which the surfaces are often covered 

 with clay, prove that, under a greater degree of care than 

 has hitherto been expended on them, they admit of 

 valuable and permanent improvement. As in other 

 neglected and undrained places, that soil is so encum- 

 bered with peat as to be useless ; although, in many parts, 

 it would advantageously admit the plough, while it affords 



