464 MR. H. M WALLIS ON NATURAL HISTORY OP ARRAN MORE. 
of small rocky islands ; the whole being almost destitute of timber, 
although the iieat-bogs are full of the stools of Scotch Firs, etc., 
on one of which I saw marks of the axe. This wholesale 
destruction of covert has jDrobably affected the character of the 
natural history of the district. Game is scarce. There are 
Badgers in the mountains, and Otters on the lakes. The latter 
trample the undergrowth on the little rocky lake-islets into regular 
tracks. Seals abound. One sees them daily, and at close quarters. 
Some are so large that I think they must be the Gray Seal. 
I am no botanist, and only mention one or two uncommon 
plants which forced themselves upon my notice. The Royal Fern 
(Osmunda regalis) in almost incredible profusion, so abundant 
indeed that its thousands of springing heads gave a deep orange 
tinge to the pastures : Viola lutea in great profusion upon the 
sandy pastures of Rutland Island : and Saxifraga coispitosa, in 
one place, half-way down the western cliffs of Arran More ; also 
the Buckbean. 
The geology of the whole district seemed so interesting that I was 
constantly longing for the presence and counsel of an expert in 
igneous formations. Granite predominates on the mainland, 
traversed by fissures which are filled with limestone. The island 
of Arran More seems a mass of gneiss, much resembling in the 
arrangement of its broad ribbon-like layers of white quartz, pink 
felspar and greenstone, the gneiss of Sutherlandshire. The bold 
coloration of these magnificent cliffs is a constant surprise. 
Some conspicuous headlands are as regularly banded as an agate — 
an agate as bulky as Cologne cathedral. This gneiss is extremely 
hard, and is traversed at the sea-level by innumerable caves, the 
haunt and breeding-place of Seals and Rock Doves. Some of these 
caves are inconspicuous at the mouth, but open out inside into 
lofty domes and galleries, the last usually terminating in a shingle 
beach. Most of these caves are formed at the lower end of 
an eruption of some dull, black, crystalline intrusive rock 
(qy. basalt), which traverses the gneiss in vertical dykes about 
six or eight feet in thickness. At the summit of the cliff, some 
of these dykes have weathered away, allowing the passage of a 
stream. A little detached island off the coast, which presents a 
circle of precipices to the sea, rising out of deep water, is 
interesting as an example of gneiss traversed by granite veins. 
