MODEUN riF.OT.0OK;AL CHANGES. 103 



our locality may have presented when such beaches as that of Sauchie-hall- 

 Street formed the bound of silver sand that forbade the farther progress of 

 the waves which in those remote ages rolled over the spot now the dwelling- 

 place of our city's busy population. 



First of all, I must clearly distinguish between the period when these 

 raised beaches were formed, and that in which these canoes came to be 

 embedded. It requires no more for the embedding of the canoes than that 

 along the flat margins of our river should have existed considerable swamps, 

 lying very low, and subject to inundation every tide; and that this may 

 have been the case within the last two thousand years is very probable. 

 This would give us a considerable rise in the surface of ground around us, 

 similar to what is taking place at present on the Clyde, between Helensburgh 

 and Dumbarton. And that such a supposition is by no means too extreme, 

 the alterations which have taken eifect on the Clyde within the period to 

 which our annals refer, sufficiently attest. 



But that the great geological changes in the level of the sea arc carried 

 back into an antiquity very much greater than the period to which authentic 

 history reaches, is very sufficiently proved by the oldest civilized remains of 

 which our country can boast; — -I mean those of the Komans; — of which our 

 immediate neighbourhood furnishes us with a good many instances. My 

 purpose requires me to refer at present to only one of these— the site of 

 the kst or terminating fort upon the Roman Wall of Antoninus, or Graham's 

 Dyke, as it is commonly called. This site is occupied by the ruins of a 

 modern fort or house — Dunglass Castle. 



I have been favoured with the following particulars as to this wall bj'' 

 Mr. Buchanan, one of our most zealous antiquarians: — "The first time the 

 isthmus between Clyde and Forth was fortified by the Romans was in the 

 year 81, while Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, was emperor. This was 

 done by Agricola, during his fourth summer in Caledonia. He placed, however, 

 merely a row of forts, without any connecting wall or curtain, having ulterior 

 plans, which were marred by the death of his patron Titus, and the recall 

 of this excellent officer by Domitian. The wall was constructed about sixty 

 years afterwards, (answering to the year 140,) by Lollius Urbicus, the 

 governor of Britain under Antoninus Pius. The plan of this military fortification 

 was a great trench, stretching from Clyde to Forth, at Dunglass rocky 

 promontory on the former, to Coeriden on the latter; in line with, and 

 connecting the old forts of Agricola, but with a number of additional ones 

 placed at intervals. The earth from the trench was thrown up into a rampart 

 on the south side, and faced at some places with stone, at others with turf, 

 and along the south ran a paved military way. The distance between the 

 forts was generally two miles. It was not nearly so stupendous a work as the 

 great wall of Severus, between the Solway and the Tyne, which was of stone." 



We have now to notice that "when both walls were built, they were 

 erected with reference to a sea-level at either end, corresponding very nearly. 



