BUTE. GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 449 



racter which it exhibits throughout that line. In most 

 places the sandstone strata are elevated to a high angle ; 

 generally forming a subsidiary ridge of hills reposing against 

 the primary. Here, they seem to be depressed, and to 

 dip toward the west in a direction opposite to that of 

 the primary, instead of being elevated against them. 

 Hence the actual junction is invisible ; the low valley 

 where it takes place being overwhelmed with clay and 

 soil. 



There is little to add to the general sketch, al- 

 ready given, of the form of the land in this division. 

 Round the primary tract, the shores are almost every 

 where low ; scarcely any decided cliffs occurring, and 

 a flat margin, as in Arran, along ' which the road 

 is conducted, forming the whole eastern side. To the 

 south of Rothsay, there is a similar flat, answering the 

 same purposes ; within which the sandstone and conglo- 

 merate form a range of cliffs, of little elevation and small 

 extent. The remainder of the shores of this division on 

 each side, as far as the isthmus that separates it from 

 the Garroch head, are generally low. Two or three 

 trifling valleys intersect it on the eastern side, giving 

 rise to small brooks ; the little lake of Ascog occu- 

 pying a portion of one of them : but, with these excep- 

 tions, the land possesses no remarkable features. The 

 accompanying section, although an ideal one, will convey 

 a better notion, both of the general form of the island, 

 and of the various divisions enumerated, than can be 

 communicated by words alone.* 



The peculiar nature of the low tract which separates the 

 sandstone district from the trap division of the Garroch 

 head, gives reason to suppose that the sea once flowed 

 between these two divisions; an opinion derived partly 

 from its present extreme lowness, and partly from the 

 nature of the substances of which it is composed. These 



* Plato XXTT. %. 2. 

 VOL. ii. <; <; 



