EARTH 



SCIENCES 



LIBRARY 



PREFACE. 



THE first portion of the following work was prepared in the summer 

 of 1855, at the request of the Local Committee of the British 

 Association, then about to assemble in Glasgow. As no connected 

 account of the Geological formations of Clydesdale at that time 

 existed, the Committee was desirous that such an outline should be 

 drawn up as might serve for a guide to the study of the coal series, 

 of the tertiary formations, and evidences of glacial action, for which 

 the neighbourhood of the city is so celebrated. To this request the 

 Author willingly acceded; and to the sketch then printed he appended 

 a notice of some new views regarding the structure of Arran. 



At the request of many friends, who deemed that fuller notices 

 of the Clydesdale formations would be useful and acceptable, a 

 new and enlarged edition is now published ; and as Mr. Ramsay's 

 excellent Guide to Arran has been for some time out of print, an 

 entirely new account of the structure of this interesting island has 

 been added, embodying the observations made during many summer 

 rambles among its romantic glens and mountains. That the work 

 may serve also as a general Guide to Arran, descriptions of the 

 scenery and antiquities have been introduced. 



Happily, within the last few years Botany and Marine Zoology 

 have been attracting an increased number of cultivators; and as 

 Arran is a highly interesting field in these departments also, the 

 Author considered that their study would be promoted, and the 

 wants of the student met, by combining an account of the Flora and 

 Marine Fauna of Arran with that of the Geology. At his request the 



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