which gives name to the county, is separated by a narrow channel from the district of Cow- Buteshire, al in Argyleshire. It is about 15 miles long, and 3 1/2 miles broad, but so much indented by the sea that the heads of some of the bays on the opposite sides of the island are not more than a mile distant; and it contains nearly 30,000 acres, of which more than a half is susceptible of cultivation. The country is generally low, few of its hills rising more than 200 feet above the sea. The climate, though very moist, is so mild as to be compared with that of Devonshire; and the soil is for the most part dry, and naturally fertile.

Agriculture. A former Marquis of Bute, to whom seven-eighths of the island belonged, began, so early as 1768, to promote the improvement of the island and its inhabitants; but his plans, though apparently well calculated for this purpose, do not seem to have effected any favourable alteration, probably owing to his absence from the country, and to his time having been engrossed by public affairs. The present Marquis, however, has within these few years displayed a very laudable attention to the same object. An eminent agriculturalist has been employed to survey the island, and to point out the defects in its husbandry in a small treatise which is distributed gratis; and young men have been sent to the border counties, as apprentices to some of the best farmers in that district, to whom the noble proprietor means to give a preference as tenants. All the crops common in the lowlands of Scotland are cultivated in Bute; and, though modern husbandry be yet in its infancy, its progress in the southern parts of the island, where the land is enclosed with white-thorn hedges, is by no means inconsiderable.

Minerals. Slate and limestone are found in various quarters of the island, from which also there is ready access to the noted limestone quarries in the north of Ireland. Coal has not yet been discovered. Beds of sea-shells abound on the western side, and vast quantities of sea-weed are thrown upon its shores.

Fisheries. The herring-fishery was formerly prosecuted by the inhabitants of Bute with great success; but of late it has declined, and at present does not much interfere with agriculture, as it is chiefly confined to the town of Rothesay. White fish and shell fish, though abounding on the coast, have been hitherto much neglected. In the town of Rothesay, the principal town of Buteshire, from which the heir apparent to the British throne takes the title of a Scottish duke, there has been a cotton manufactory for several years. The vessels belonging to this port in 1812 carried 5195 tons; and it has a regular communication by packets with Greenock, and by a daily mail-boat with Largs in Ayrshire.

Ruins. In the ruins of the castle of Rothesay, the principal residence of the Stuarts, ancestors of the present family of Bute, till it was burned in 1685, are still pointed out the bedchambers and banqueting rooms of Robert II. and III. the last Scottish monarchs who inhabited this venerable pile. Mount Stuart, the seat of the Marquis of Bute, from which he takes his second title, is an elegant house, with fine woods and pleasure-grounds, situated about two hundred yards from the eastern shore, and commanding a delightful view of the navigation of the Firth of Clyde, and of the opposite shore.

Arran, lying about twelve miles south from Buteshire, Bute, is something more than twenty miles long and from eight to eleven miles broad; and contains, by Arran, the latest estimation, more than 100,000 acres, of which only a seventh part may be fit for cultivation. It is an extremely rugged and mountainous country, particularly the northern part, in which the valleys are deep and romantic. Goatfield, a mountain surface nearly in the centre of the island, is about 3000 feet high, and a few others approach to the same elevation. The climate, in winter, is exceedingly severe; and, like that of all the other western isles, moist during the other seasons. With the exception of a few farms, the whole island belongs to the Duke of Hamilton, who has very lately begun to take an interest in its improvement, and expended a considerable sum in making roads, bridges, and small harbours. Game is in great abundance, particularly grouse, which are surprisingly numerous on the mountains. Limestone, marl, and slate, are found in different parts, and there are indications of coal also. The herring fishery is prosecuted to great advantage. Arran has two remarkably fine harbours, Harbours Lamlish on the east side, and Loch Ranza on the north. Its agriculture does not seem to have improved much since the time when Pennant visited it. The arable land of a farm is still occupied in intermixed ridges, or what in Scotland is called run-rig, by a society of tenants, who interchange their possessions every year, or every two years at the longest; and, adjoining to this portion, a common pasture is allotted for their cows, under the charge of a herd. The highest grounds are held in common by the tenantry at large; and, as soon as the crops are removed, the live-stock pasture indiscriminately over the whole island. See the Article Arran in the Encyclopaedia.

The Cumbraes are two small islands on the coast of Ayrshire, but do not, as has been inadvertently stated in the article Ayrshire, make a part of that county. The largest, which belongs to the Marquis of Bute and the Earl of Glasgow, contains about four square miles, of which a half is cultivated; and the smallest, the property of the Earl of Eglington, only one mile, on which there is a light-house, with four or five families, and a great number of rabbits.

Inchmarnoch, a beautiful islet, lies to the southwest of Bute, and takes its name from a chapel on it, dedicated to St Marnoch, of which the ruins are still visible. Its surface is less than a square mile, and about a third of it is cultivated.

Pladda, another islet belonging to Buteshire, Pladda, is about a mile to the east of Bute. A lighthouse was erected on it a few years ago. The only other islet worthy of notice in this county is Lamlash, which covers the harbour of that name in Arran.

The county of Bute sends a Member to Parliament alternately with Caithness; and Rothesay, the only royal burgh it contains, unites with Ayr, Irvine, Campbellton, and Inverary, in electing a Member for the boroughs. The valued rental, according to the Valued books of the collector of the land-tax, is in Scots Real Rent money L.15,042, 13s. 10d., divided among only eleven estates; and that of the lands held under entail is a third of the whole. The real rent in 1811 was, for the lands L.18,591, 9s. 2d., and for the houses L. 2310, 1s. 7d. Sterling. The following tables exhibit an abstract of the returns made under the Population Acts of 1800 and 1811.

<table> <tr> <th colspan="2">HOUSES.</th> <th colspan="2">PERSONS.</th> <th colspan="4">OCCUPATIONS.</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Inhabited.</th> <th>By how many Families occupied.</th> <th>Uninhabited.</th> <th>Males.</th> <th>Females.</th> <th><i>Persons chiefly employed in Agriculture.</i></th> <th><i>Persons chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.</i></th> <th>All other <i>Persons not comprised in the two preceding classes.</i></th> <th>Total of Persons.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>1911</td> <td>2501</td> <td>17</td> <td>5552</td> <td>6239</td> <td>3161</td> <td>4821</td> <td>3809</td> <td>11,791</td> </tr> </table>

<table> <tr> <th colspan="2">HOUSES.</th> <th colspan="2">PERSONS.</th> <th colspan="4">OCCUPATIONS.</th> </tr> <tr> <th>Inhabited.</th> <th>By how many Families occupied.</th> <th>Uninhabited.</th> <th>Males.</th> <th>Females.</th> <th><i>Families chiefly employed in Agriculture.</i></th> <th><i>Families chiefly employed in Trade, Manufactures, or Handicraft.</i></th> <th>All other <i>Families not comprised in the two preceding classes.</i></th> <th>Total of Persons.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>2047</td> <td>2618</td> <td>38</td> <td>5545</td> <td>6488</td> <td>1214</td> <td>530</td> <td>874</td> <td>12,033</td> </tr> </table>