$80 MINERALOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



nite, but in other places it extends to only a few 

 feet. 



The westernmost granite district of Galloway, 

 or what has been called the Loch Doon one, is 

 separated from the middle or Dee district, by 

 about four miles of transition country. I was 

 anxious to know, whether in this district, also, the 

 same phenomena were observable that I had be- 

 fore found in the other which I had examined. 

 With a view to ascertain this, I left Brockloch on 

 the 1st of September last, in company with Mr 

 Macmillan of Holm, to whose obligingness and 

 hospitality, I had been several times before in- 

 debted, and proceeded north-westward over a 

 high range of transition hills, four miles towards 

 Loch Doon. On coming into sight of this fine 

 lake, which we here did at a considerable eleva- 

 tion above its surface, we could not avoid being 

 struck with the wild grandeur and beauty of the 

 prospect. The forenoon was fine,— few clouds in 

 the sky, — and the air nearly still. Before us lay 

 Loch Doon, stretching away toward the right in 

 a serpentine line for nine miles, and beyond, to 

 the N. W. in the distance, the rich county of Ayr, 

 — the sea, — the Rock of Ailsa,-^and the Isle of 

 Arran, appeared. To the south, or on our left, 

 and as it were beneath our feet, lay the upper 

 end of Loch Doon, overhung by the steep and 

 high mountains of Knockour, Lamlach, Corran, 

 ^nd Merrock, the latter greatly the most elevated 



