Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/559

Rh A K G A E G 499 P.oubillac, has been erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. ARCHIBALD, the third duke, brother of the preceding, was bora at Ham House in Surrey, in June 1682. On his father being created a duke, he joined the army, and served for a short time under the duke of Marlborough. In 1705 lie was appointed treasurer of Scotland, and in the following year was one of the commissioners for treating of the Union ; on the consummation of which, having been raised to the peerage of Scotland as earl of Islay, he was chosen one of the sixteen peers for Scotland in the first parliament of Great Britain. In 1711 he was called to the Privy Council, and commanded the royal army at the battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. He was appointed keeper of the privy seal in 1725, and was afterwards intrusted with the principal manage ment of Scottish affairs. In 173i he was made keeper of the great seal, an office which he held till his death. He succeeded to the dukedom in 1743. The duke was eminent not only for liis political abilities, but foi his literary accomplishments, and had collected one of the most valuable private libraries in Great Britain. He died suddenly on the loth of April 17G1. ARGYLLSHIRE, or ARGYLESHIRE, a county on the west coast of Scotland, comprehending a large district on the mainland and a number of the Hebrides or Western Isles. The mainland portion lies between lat. 55 15 and 56 55 X., and between long. 4 32 and 6 6 W.; its greatest length being 115 miles, and its greatest breadth about 36 miles. It is bounded on the N. by Inverness- shire ; on the E. by the counties of Perth and Dumbarton, Loch Long, and the Firth of Clyde ; on the S. by the North Channel ; and on the W. by the Atlantic. Its sea coast has been stated at 600 miles. If the various islands are in cluded, the greatest breadth of the county is 68 miles, and its total area amounts to 3255 square miles, or 2,083,126 acres, which is more than a tenth part of the whole area of Scotland. It contains forty parishes, and has been variously divided at different times into a number of dis tricts. The names of these at present in use are North and South Argyll, Cowal, Dunoon, Kin tyre (or Can tyre), Tarbert, Lorn, Mull, Ardnamurchan, Morven, Islay, &c. The principal towns are Inveraray, Dunoon, Campbeltown, Oban, and Tobermory. There are numerous mountain streams, but no navigable rivers. The two principal are the Orchy and Awe. The former flows from Loch Tulla through Glen Orchy, and falls into Loch Awe at its northern extremity ; and the latter forms an outlet for the loch across the neck of land which lies between it and Loch Etive. The other streams are the Add, Aray, Coe or Cona, Creran, Douglas, Echaig, Etive, Euchar, Feochan, Finart, Fyne, Kinglas, Kinloss, Large, Leven, Nell, Ruel, Shiel, Shira, Strae, Talaken, Uisge-Dhu, &c. Most of these yield excellent salmon and trout fish ing. There are also some good fishing streams in the islands. The county is remarkable for the numerous inlets of the sea with which it is deeply indented, the principal of them being Loch Long, with its branch Loch Goil ; Loch Fyne, with Loch Gilp ; Loch Etive ; Loch Linnhe, with its branches Loch Creran, Loch Leven, and Loch Eil ; and Loch Sunart. There is also a large number of inland lakes, the total area of which is about 25,000 acres. Of these the principal are Loch Awe, Loch Avich, Loch Eck, Loch Lyndoch (partly in Perthshire), and Loch Shiel. The principal islands are Mull, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Lis- more, Tiree, Coll, Gigha, Muck, Rum, and Canna. Besides these there are the two small but interesting islands of Staffa and lona the one famous for its basaltic caves and rocks, and the other as the earliest seat of Christianity in Scotland. The whole county is rugged and mountainous, and many of the peaks are among the loftiest in the kingdom ; as Ben Cruachan (3689 ft.), Ben More, in Mull (3172), Ben Ima (3318), Buchael Etive (3345), and Ben Arthur, &quot;The Cobbler&quot; (2891), on the borders of Dumbartonshire. To the tourist it offers a rich variety of Highland scenery, culminating in the gloomy grandeur of Glencoe. The situation and conformation of Argyllshire tend to produce a very abundant rainfall. At Oban, the average annual amount is 64 18 inches; in Glen Fyne, 104 11 inches; at the Bridge of Orchy, 113 62 inches; and at Upper Glencoe, 127 65 ; while at Edinburgh the average quantity is only 26 40 inches. The prevailing winds, as observed at Callton-More, near Crinan, are the S.W. and S.E., and next in frequency are the N.W. and N.E. The average temperature is 48 Fahr. Geologically, the mainland consists principally of the metamor- phic or so-called primary strata, covered in part by newer formations. In the portion west of Lochs Linnhe and Eil the districts of Sunart, Ardgower, and Morven gneiss is the prevalent rock, broken through by granite near Strontian, and by trap rocks in Ardnamurchan and Morven. In the other portion east of Loch Linnhe, the lower rocks are chiefly mica slate and clay slate, the continuation of the strata forming the great range of the southern Grampians. Mica slate is the most important and oldest of these formations, rising up into the wild and rugged mountains so conspicuous near Loch Long and Loch Fyne. In Appin it is partly replaced by quartz rock, remark able for bare sterility, and on Loch Fyne by chlorite slates running down into Knapdale or the upper portion of the promontory of Kintyre. These slates form a good building stone, being readily cut even with a saw, and are the material of which the ducal castle at Inveraray is built. Mica slate again forms most of Kintyre south of Tarbert, with occasional beds of dark coloured limestone. Clay slate is far less common on the mainland, but occurs near Duuoon and Toward Point on the Clyde. It has been long quarried extensively at Ballachulish, and again appears near Oban and further south, often as a dark coloured carbonaceous-looking rock. From this it extends into Kerrera, Seil, Easdale, Luing, and the other so called slate islands. It has everywhere a very marked cleavage, distinct from the stratification, and some of the beds furnish a very durable roofing slate, which has been long wrought in Easdale, and with which many houses in Scotland are covered. Cubical crystals of iron pyrites abound in all these slates, which, though no organic remains have yet been found in them, are probably the equivalents of the lowest Silurian formations. To the same period may also be referred the quartz rock mentioned as occurring in Appin, specially near the lower part of Glencoe, and more extensively in Jura and Islay, along with the clay slate. From its hardness and indestructibility it would form a valuable building stone, but is little used. These properties also cause it to project in singularly sharp ridges and conical summits, of which the Paps of Jura are the best known. The limestone associated with these older strata, though seldom in large masses, is yet widely spread. It has been wrought near Ballachulish and in various parts of Appin, in several places near the Crinan Canal, and along the whole peninsula of Kintyre as far as Campbeltown. The largest masses are found in some of the islands. Thus it covers the whole of Lismore and a large tract in the centre of Islay near Bowmore. A magnesian variety found on lona, associated with serpentine, takes a good polish, and the red or llesh coloured marble of Tiree, often with embedded crystals of green hornblende, occurs in beds in the gneiss of that island. Red sandstones, probably belonging to more than one period in the history of the earth, are found in different parts of Argyllshire. Some portions, resting conformably on the mica slate of Kintyre, may belong to the Torridon sandstone or Cambrian of the north-west coast, whilst other portions are of Devonian age. Some beds near Oban and on the Sound of Mull are probably Trias. True coal, a continuation of that in Ayrshire, has been wrought near Camp beltown. At various points on the coast of Mull, Morven, and Ardnamurchan, beds belonging to the Lias, Oolite, and even perhaps the Cretaceous formations, appear underlying the trap rocks. Though of much interest in a scientific point of view they have little influence on the general character of the county. More recent formations are the leaf beds, withremainsof Miocene plantsdiscovered in the trap tufa at Ardtunhead, in Mull, by the duke of Argyll in 1850. Raised beaches with fossil shells are also known on. several parts of the coast, e.g., at the Sound of Kerrera. Of the igneous rocks, granite chiefly occurs in a large mass round the upper end of Loch Etive, extending south to Ben Cruachan near Loch Awe. Smaller masses appear near Ballachulish and at the Ross of Mull. In the latter place it has been extensively quarried and used for the magnificent lighthouse erected on the Skerry Vohr. Veins are common near these masses and in other places. Felspar porphyries, in great variety of forms and colours, abound in Glencoe,