118 



EXCURSION VI. 



TO THE NORTH SHORE. 



59. THE coast section from Come to Loch Ranza is full of 

 interest. A long summer's day will be required to examine 

 it carefully several days, if we stop to collect the fossils 

 which abound in some of the beds. The scenery, too, 

 is full of beauty in parts bold and picturesque in the 

 extreme: we shall be tempted to stop very often to add 

 some new treasure to our portfolio. Leaving Invercloy 

 by the first steamer for Glasgow, we shall be at Corrie 

 for an early breakfast, and be ready to start fresh while 

 the day is yet young. But Corrie is for this, as for 

 several other excursions, an admirable point of departure- 

 A handsome and commodious hotel has recently been 

 erected here, and under its present management is most 

 comfortable. Loch Ranza is eight miles distant from Corrie 

 by the high road ; by the path we are to follow along the 

 shore, not more than between ten and eleven.* 



The strata at the base of the carboniferous system, and 

 their contact with the old red sandstone, are well exposed 

 upon the shore. We shall trace them in ascending order, 

 beginning a quarter of a mile north of Corrie, at the 

 march of Achab farm, where the road bends towards the 

 N.W. This is the base of the series; but it is not a 

 well-defined base there is, in fact, a gradual passage from 

 the Old Red system into the carboniferous strata. The 

 Old Red is here a conglomerate, and is overlaid by a 



* Mr. Douglas, Postmaster at Corrie, son of the late Mr. Douglas, 

 whose great local knowledge was so freely placed at the servjpe of the 

 explorers of Arran, is well acquainted with the strata in the vicinity, 

 and with the geology and botany of the island. 



