In summer 1776, Professor Ferguson observed a particular appearance on the hill of Arthur's Seat, near the summit, which drew his attention, and which he could not understand. He then carried Dr Black and me to the place, where we found something which, at a distance, resembled the withered grass of a foot-path, but which traversed a shoulder of the hill, in such a direction as corresponded to neither sheeptrack nor foot-path. Upon a near inspection, it appeared to be a narrow stripe of the grass quite dead and withered. The breadth of this stripe was about nine, or, in some places, twelve inches; the sides of this track were perfectly defined, without any gradation from green to withered grass, all the plants in the track being killed, without the contiguous part having suffered in the least. The length of this track was considerable, a hundred yards or two, extending from the south-east side of the southmost hill through a hollow, and ascending obliquely the shoulder of the summit of Arthur's Seat on the south-east side.