Account of Ancient Urn, (Sac. By Rev. W. Stobbs. 115 



as are at all inclined to botanical pursuits; in no other branch of 

 the natural history of our islands is so favourable an opportunity 

 offered to botanists for the discovery of new species and new- 

 forms of fructification. The study of algology as yet is imper- 

 fectly understood, and the satisfaction of adding to the flora of the 

 district, and possibly of the country, or to the knowledge of any 

 particular science, is greatly in excess of that derived from the 

 mere collection of dried specimens of ascertained species of flower- 

 ing plants, to which too many of our country botanists restrict 

 their efltorts. 



The study is not a difficult one, nothing more being required 

 than a little perseverance, a good manual of the British algae, 

 and a common microscope, and the beauty of the specimens when 

 properly set out is far in excess of any collection of flowering 

 plants, which it is impossible to preserve in anything nearly ap- 

 proaching their pristine beauty and delicacy of colour. 



BoTdc Account of an Ancient Urn and of Gold and Silver 

 Ornaments found under a cairn in the parish of Gordon 

 about the year 1838, by the late Mr James Hay, and now 

 in possession of Mr John Hay, Feuar, Gordon. (Plates 

 II and III.) By the Rev. William Stobbs, M.A. 



Neaely all the land lying to the north-east of Gordon, 

 between that village and the river Eden, was within living 

 memory a barren moorland. With a view to its reclamation the 

 superior let it in portions to several of the inhabitants of the 

 village in the form of feus. To transform so unpromising a 

 piece of moor into arable land proved to be no easy task. The 

 stones, and even rocks, with which the surface was strewn were 

 so numerous as to require the expenditure of incredible labour 

 in their removal. Perseverance, however, won the day; and 

 what a few years before had been a stretch of heather and 

 whins, presented the more pleasing aspect of well fenced fields, 

 whose crops testified by their variety and abundance to a high 

 degree of cultivation. 



The feu which fell to the lot of the late Mr Hay seems to have 

 been a more than usually formidable subject ; for not only did it 

 possess its full share of stones scattered by the hand of nature, 

 but it was encumbered in addition by a large pile of them, erected 



