THE COUNTY OF AYRSHIRE. 



IN the south of Scotland, on the western coast, 

 lies the County of Ayrshire. The outline of its 

 boundaries encloses a crescent-shaped area, with the 

 concavity towards the sea, its length about eighty 

 miles, and its breadth varying from a few miles at 

 the extremities to about twenty-eight miles in the 

 centre, it contains 1,149 square miles, or 735,262 

 acres of surface. 1 Generally low adjoining the sea, 

 the land rises by easy slopes and wavy undulations, 

 to a ridge of high or hilly country, in part almost 

 mountainous, which forms its eastern boundaries. No 

 portion can be termed level, for numerous swells or 

 rounded hills give variety to the landscape. As the 

 slope of the land is generally westerly, towards the 

 shore, or the valleys of the streams flowing thither, it 

 follows that the principal exposure of the arable 

 land is westerly and southerly, a fact which is of 

 importance as explaining in part the moderation of 

 the climate. The country is well watered by numer- 

 ous streams, which, rising among the eastern hills, 

 find their way in a tortuous course to the sea. 



* Jour. R. A. 8. of Eng. 1866, p. 426. 



