284 The Scottish Naturalist. 



as the waters recede, the mouth of the Nethy — i.e.^ Aber or 

 Invernethy — always finds itself farther down. 



If we ascend the Earn, we find Aberdalgie also on the 45-feet 

 level. The small stream comes down to the haughs on the Earn, 

 and joins that river at a lower point than it once did. 



The conclusion to which these names lead is, that at the time 

 when they were given, the waters in the low levels of the Carse 

 lands had not receded to the places where we now find them, 

 and that the mouths of the streams were much nearer the places 

 which bear the names of their mouths than they are at present. 



We find the subsidence of waters, since the names were given, 

 testified to by another appellation. The Carse of Gowrie is 

 studded with Inches. We have Inchture, Inchmartin, Inch- 

 michael, Inchcoonans, Megginch, Inchyra, and farther up the 

 river we have the Inches of Perth. Inch represents very nearly 

 the pronunciation of the Gaelic Inis. The word means an 

 island. As it means an island, the place so designated must 

 have been an island when the name was given. We shall look 

 at three of these Inches. Inchture now stands about four miles 

 from the Firth. Its highest part is 54 feet above the sea-level. 

 Hence, when the sea rose to the height of the beach now found 

 in the Carse at the 45-feet level, Inchture was an island. But 

 when the sea had retreated to the 30-feet beach, Inchture would 

 be an island no longer; it Avould be joined to the mainland at 

 the back, and form a part of it. There is a very interesting 

 question opened up here, which I merely indicate. If Inchture 

 received its name from being an island, it must have got the 

 name before the waters had fallen back to the 30-feet level ; and 

 as the name is Celtic, it would assign a very remote antiquity to 

 the first Celtic immigration. 



Inchmartin must have been a much more prominent island. 

 Its summit level is 89 feet. The general level around it is 35 

 feet. It must thus have stood conspicuously out of the sea 

 when the waters were at the 45-feet beach ; and from the nature 

 of the ground around, it would have been an island when the 

 waters were at the 30-feet beach. 



The Inches of the Carse lead, then, to the same conclusion as 

 the Abers — viz., that the waters liave greatly receded since the 

 names were given. 



( To be coHliniicd. ) 



