I.—General Configuration of the District. In the southern corner of the triangular county of Ayr there is a district so markedly distinct in general featuring from the rest of the county that the early inhabitants, ever ready to notice such physical differences and to give them apposite names, had designated the district by the characteristic name of Carrick. In journeying southwards the traveller remarks at once the difference in scenery. Leaving the town of Ayr he begins to enter a more undulating country than the somewhat monotonous flats of the plain of Ayrshire from Dalry to the banks of the Doon. On the horizon he sees to the east and south higher elevations, and if he travel south of the Girvan valley he soon reaches a land of hills and moorlands, as desolate and bleak as any district of broad Scotland. In fact, this portion of the county is a portion of the great ridge of elevated ground which stretches across the country from Loch Ryan to St. Abbs Head in the general direction from S.W. to N.E. The great southern uplands are in fact another “Highlands,” not so high, not so grand, nor wild; yet rivalling the northern Highlands in lone barrenness, in savage ruggedness, and even in some spots, as at Loch Trool, in picturesqueness. The hills are softer in outline than the Bens of the north, but many of them rise, like Merrick, nearly to 3,000 feet. The valleys are generally narrow, with gently sloping banks, dotted This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract