The Scottish Naturalist. 327 



This explanation, given in the first Statistical Account of Scotland, 

 has been copied by compilers of gazetteers and guide-books, and 

 is currently adopted. Now we have the Tay on one side of the 

 North Inch, and skirting another part we have a comparatively 

 modern small mill-stream ; but that still leaves a great part of the 

 North Inch, which is skirted neither by mill-lade, nor drain, nor 

 ditch, but forms a part of the adjacent country. The name Inch 

 was applied to it, because they who gave the name gave it to a 

 veritable island formed by the branching of the Tay. At the 

 head of the North Inch there is a spot marked on old maps as 

 " the Bulwark," known to the modern golfer as the place where 

 '' the mound-hole " is situated — that is where the Tay branched. 

 The main body of the water flowed in its present channel, but 

 a branch separating from the main stream at the spot we have 

 indicated had flowed a very little to the east of where Rose 

 Terrace is now^situated, ran directly south below Methven Street, 

 followed the course of King Street, then along the back of the 

 South Inch, and following the line of the Craigie burn, once more 

 joined the main channel of the river. The course can still be 

 traced, notwithstanding all the artificial changes made. There 

 would be a veritable island or inch, comprehending the present 

 Inches, and the site on which Perth now stands. It must have 

 been covered with w^ater when the Tay was in flood, just as we 

 still see the North and South Inches becoming lakes when the 

 Tay rises to a great height. The island being very low and flat, 

 may have been divided in some places by streams crossing 

 from the smaller branch to the greater : one such stream seems 

 to have followed pretty much the course of the modern mill- 

 lade, below Methven Street to the Tay ; but the general aspect 

 presented would be that of a low, long flat island, formed by the 

 branching of the Tay at the top of the North Inch, and the 

 reunion of these branches at the bottom of the South Inch ; and 

 the name which was given to it— a name descriptive of the scene 

 which then met the view— -is used by us in the present day, when 

 the branch which formed the island's western boundary has long 

 been the site of public parks, terraces, streets, and crescents. 



In an old map there are marked two small fields, called re- 

 spectively the North Inch and the South Inch, between the Woody 

 Island and the top of the North Inch. These now form a part 

 of a large field on the farm of Muirton. I mention these to show 

 how there were islands formed — then they became a part of the 

 mainland, and then their name is forgotten. 



