BITE, which gives name to the county, is sepa rated by a narrow channel from the district of Cow al in Argylesbire. It is about 15 miles long, and Si 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 coun try 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 De vonshire; and the soil is for the most part dry, and naturally fertile.
A former Marquis of Bute, to whom seven-eighths of the island belonged, began, so early as 1758, to promote the improvement of the island and its in habitants; but his plans, though apparently well cal culated for this purpose, do not seem to have ef fected any favourable alteration, probably owing to his absence from the country, and to his time having been engrossed by public affairs. The present Mar quis, 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 hus bandry in a small treatise which is distributed gratis; and young men have been sent to the border coon. ties, 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.
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 Ire land. Coal has not yet been discovered. Beds of sea-shells abound on the western side, and vast quan tities of sea-weed are thrown upon its shores.
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 Rodney. White fish and shell fish, though abounding on the coast, have been hitherto much neglected. In the town of Rothsay, the prin cipal town of Buteshire, from which the heir appa rent to the British throne takes the title of a Scot tish 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 com munication by packets with Greenock, and by a daily mail-boat with in Ayrshire.
In the ruins of the castle of Rothsay, the princi pal residence of the Stuarts, ancestors of the pre sent family of Bute, till it was burned in 1685, are still pointed out the bedchambers and banquetting rooms of Robert II. and III. the last Scottish mo narchs 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 com manding a delightful view of the navigation of the Firth of Clyde, and of the opposite shore.