The book Arran; - Cook Clan

CHAPTER IX
THE FIRST OF THE IMPROVERS
Islands deficient in arable land— Arran fishings in the eighteenth
century—mode of cultivation—runrig—character of the people
Barrel's Diary or Journal—rents and restraints—local government
institution of the packet-boats— Burrel's calculations and judgments
game in the island—Burrel's results small apart from rental—condition
of the island in the later years of the century—routine of its life
occupations and dwellings—the Arran roads.
Islands have as a rule a smaller share of alluvial land,
suitable for cultivation, in proportion to their size than
continental areas. This is markedly the case in examples
like Arran, where volcanic outbursts have helped so much in
the making of the island, leaving it with high-lying moors
and mountain ridges loftier than its mere size would warrant,
so that slopes are steep and descend steeply down or near
to the water edge. It follows, too, that a population depending
on the soil will congregate at favourable spots on
the shore margin,^ passing inwards where open straths flank
the channels of the larger streams ; of which the most
conspicuous example here is the vale of Shisken in the lower
• Arran— 'inhabit onlie at the sea-coaats' (Dean Monro, 1694). 'The alluvial
flats and raised beaches at the mouths of the principal streams afford the best soil, and
the narrow terrace or raised beach round the island is in general carefully cultivated.
The upper limit of enclosed and cultivated land is between 400 and 500 feet above the
sea, but the greater portion is below 300. As the ground rises steeply from the sea
almost everywhere, the arable land is necessarily but a narrow belt along the coast,
and even there is not continuous, though apparently more land was formerly
cultivated in the olden times' {Mem. Oeol. Survey, vol. xxi. p. 150).
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