134 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



during this period of partial submergence glaciers reached 

 the sea in certain Highland firths, which would seem to 

 show that the climate was hardly so genial as during the 

 preceding continental condition of the British area, when 

 that region was clothed with great forests. Ere long, how- 

 ever, elevation once more supervened, and the sea retreated 

 to a lower level. Here it paused for some time, and so 

 another well-marked terrace was formed, that which is 

 known as the 25-30 foot beach. 



There is not any evidence of the presence of man in 

 Scotland during the formation of the loo-foot beach or 

 terrace, but one can speak with certainty of his presence 

 there during the period of formation of the later beaches. 

 If one could put oneself into the position of an observer, who 

 at the time of the 40-50 foot submergence had stood on the 

 rock on which Stirling Castle is now built, instead of the 

 present carse lands growing abundant grass and grain, and 

 studded with towns, villages, and farm-houses, one would 

 have seen a great arm of the sea extending almost if not 

 quite across the country from east to west, and separating 

 the land south of the Forth from that to the north. In this 

 sea great whales and other marine animals disported them- 

 selves, and sought for their food. Abundant evidence that 

 this was the condition at that time in the Carse of Stirling 



o 



is furnished by the discovery during the present century of 

 no fewer than twelve skeletons of whalebone whales, belong- 

 ing to the genus Balaenoptera or Finner whales, imbedded in 

 the deposit of mud, blue silt, and clay which formed the bed 

 of the estuary. 1 This carse clay, as it is called, is now in 

 places from 45-50 feet above the present high-water mark, 

 and is extensively used for the manufacture of bricks and 

 tiles. At a still lower level lies the carse clay of the 25-30 

 foot terrace. Until the beginning of the present century the 

 clay had been covered by an extensive peat moss, which the 

 proprietors of the land have removed. The question which 

 has now to be considered is Did man exist in Scotland 

 at the period of the formation of the carse clays and of the 



1 See more particularly Mr. Milne Home's "Ancient Water Lines" (Edin- 

 burgh, 1882), and "The Raised Beaches of the Forth Valley," by D. E. Morris 

 (Stirling, 1892). 



