ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND. 
229 
its rocks, tufted here and there with Rhodiola rosea^ Angelica sglvestris^ and Salix 
aquatica, we reach the summit of the mountain, where a strange prospect opens 
on every side; undulated ridges, with uniform rounded protuberances, stretching 
along in all directions as far as the sight can reach. The Solway Firth, the 
German Ocean, the Cumberland Mountains, and the Cheviots, form part of the 
view, which yet is by no means so striking as that from Ben Lomond, Ben-na- 
mue-dui in Braemar, Clisheim in Harris, or many other points in the northern 
and western parts of Scotland ; its principal character being that of dull uniformity, 
the eye finding nothing to arrest it among the lines of rounded heaps that pre¬ 
sent the idea of a tempestuous ocean suddenly fixed by congelation. 
This mass of elevated land has an undulated summit about three miles in 
length, and is broken into on its eastern sides, first by the cony at the head of 
Loch Skene, then by a narrow ravine, and again by two great semicircular bends. 
Its principal summits are named Lochcraighead, Middle Craig, and White Coom. 
Although the elevation exceeds that of Hartfell, which lies to the south-west, at 
the distance of a few miles, and has been found to be 2,685 feet above the sea, 
the general character of the vegetation is by no means Alpine, its very summit 
being densely covered with a green sward composed of Schyus ccespitosus^ 
Nardus stricta^ Junci^ Alchemilla vulgaris^ Tormentilla officinalis^ and many 
pasture plants common to the low'est regions. I even observed some burrows of 
the Mole on the summit of the Middle Craig. 
At the southern side of that ridge which overlooks Loch Skene, is a deep tor¬ 
tuous chasm, with abrupt rocky sides, terminating towards the summit of the 
mountain in a semicircular recess about a hundred feet in height, down which 
flows a small stream. The rock here is generally slaty, more or less glistening, 
of a dark grey or blackish colour. The strata are inclined in various degrees, but 
are usually nearly vertical, and, as in other parts of the mountain, run from N.N.E. 
te S.S.W. In some places they were intersected with veins of quartz, mixed with 
calcareous spar and heavy-spar; and in the bottom of the ravine I found a block 
of decomposed green-stone containing crystals of olivine—the only appearance of 
trap I observed in the whole district. , 
The Alpine plants that occur in this chasm, and on the rocks around Loch 
Skene, are:— Saxifraga hgpnoides^ S. oppositifolia^ S. stellaris^ Oxgria reniformiSy 
Rhodiola rosea^ Silene maritima^ Thalictrum alpinum^ Cochlearia ojfficinalisy 
Poa glauca^ Epilobiurn alpinum^ E. alsinifolium^ Saussurea alpina^ Phleum 
alpinum^ Lycopodium alpinum^ and L. selago. Along with these are numerous, 
species of plants that occur abundantly in lower stations, as— Epilobiurn angus- 
tifolium^ Luzula sylvatica^ Angelica sylvestris, Oxalis acetosella, Cerastium 
viscosum^ Euphrasia officinalis, Vaccinium Vitis-idaia, V. myrtillus^ Petasiies 
ridgaris, Alchemilla vulgaris, Aira ccespitosa, Eestuca vivipara, Rubus chamce- 
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