The Scottish Naturalist. 283 



stream is 400 feet above the present sea-level. If the sea ever 

 reached that height, it was at a period far beyond the remotest 

 antiquity that the most enthusiastic Gael, in his wildest moments, 

 ever dreamed of assigning to his venerable language. But 

 though it could not have been the exact spot, yet it was once 

 nearer it than it is now. After leaving the village, the stream 

 makes a rapid descent down Baledgarno den, and enters the 

 45-feet level of the Carse at the village of Baledgarno. From 

 that point it winds its slow and tedious course for some miles 

 through the flat lands of the Carse, till it enters the estuary of 

 the Tay. When the name of Abernyte was given to the settle- 

 ment, the stream must have entered the estuary much nearer 

 the hills than it does at present — that is, in other words, the low- 

 lying lands of the Carse must have been, not the rich fields of 

 the present, but a lagoon or morass. 



Let us now go to the other side of the river, where, a little 

 above the junction of the Earn with the Tay, we find Abernethy. 

 This case is especially instructive, for we have the receding of 

 the waters, and the consequent gradual lengthening of the course 

 of the Nethy, marked for us as plainly as if the old Celts had left 

 inscribed pillars or written parchments behind them. We have 

 Abernethy, the older settlement, at the 45-feet level ; and about 

 a mile farther down, at the 30-feet level, we have Invernethy, 

 from which the stream pursues its sluggish course till it enters 

 the Earn. Here we have the same phenomenon presented to 

 us as we have in the Carse of Govvrie — the course of the stream 

 becoming longer as the waters recede from the lowlands. It 

 would be absurd to insist that Abernethy must have been the 

 exact spot where the Nethy joined the estuary; but still the 

 name leads us to the conclusion that it was then nearer the 

 junction than it is now — that is, the flat low-lying land, now 

 fertile fields, was then a shallow lagoon or morass. Then farther 

 down we have Invernethy. The word denotes a later period 

 in the language — the old Aber has become obsolete, and the 

 more modern Inver takes its place. It denotes a later stage in 

 the surface features of the ground. The shallow lagoon, into 

 which the Nethy flowed when Abernethy got its name, has at 

 this later stage become dry land ; and the stream finds its exit 

 farther on in its course. The Nethy does not now flow into 

 the Earn at Invernethy — it continues its course for some dis- 

 tance ; but were it not for the drains and cuttings, it would 

 there lose itself in a bog. The bog has become dry land, and 



