On Lilies of Ancient Sea-Levels. 127 



expounders of a terrestrial glacial theory have at once obvi- 

 ated all difficulty, by constructing in their imagination enormous 

 walls of ice 2000 feet high, by which such lakes were formerly 

 supported, and by the sudden melting of which they have been 

 let off. 



Unable to screw my courage up to the belief in this glacial 

 explanation, I will not now repeat the many objections which 

 must be raised against it, but will simply join those who pre- 

 fer to invoke the more rational, and, as it appears to me, per- 

 fectly satisfactory hypothesis, that all these terraces of gravel 

 (including those of the parallel roads) are nothing more than 

 ancient lines of beach, which are so many marks of the suc- 

 cessive rise of the land. This view is, that, as you all know, 

 which was so ably sustained by Mr C. Darwin, who, in point- 

 ing out their analogy to raised beaches in other countries, has 

 also shewn, that as similar materials occur in the great chasm 

 of the Caledonian Canal at still greater altitude (900 feet 

 above the sea), it was impossible to refer them to any other 

 cause than submarine elevation.* I have too long entertained 

 the same opinion respecting most of the great gravel accumu- 

 lation of our isles, to doubt that this is the true explanation. 

 I would add, however, that the southern shores of the Moray 

 Frith, which are of course open to the wide ocean, offer to my 

 eye still more convincing proofs of the accuracy of this view, 

 than the patches of gravel along the Caledonian Canal. The 

 terraces of gravel, sand, and boulders which there occur at dif- 

 ferent levels, may, in fact, be traced from the slopes of the 

 mountains of Morayshire and Elgin, to those heaps which lie 

 in the great gorge of the centre of the Highlands ; and there- 

 fore I maintain, that all these accumulations must have been 

 once connected, and were all originally formed underthe'sea. 



No one who has read M. de Beaumont's report on the me- 

 moir of M. Bravais, can fail to be struck with the strong, nay 

 even direct analogy which the gravel and shingle beds of the 

 marine bays and fresh-water lochs of the Highlands of Scotland 

 bear to the terraces of the Norwegian fiords ; and as the lat- 

 ter author has now by patient observation brought the phe- 

 nomena observed among the latter under the direct control of 



* Our friend, Mr Maclaren, has supported the same view with his u&ual ability. 

 — Editor. 



