234 Mr R. Chambers' Memoranda regarding an 



near the extremity of the mount called Inchmichael. The Errol 

 station of the Perth and Dundee Railway has since been set down 

 within 50 yards of the spot. From pits still open, it can be observed 

 that the ground is here composed to a considerable depth of gravel, 

 with an appearance of stratification ; and this gravel is continued all 

 the way to the end of Inchmichael, which is a mass of the same ma- 

 terial. The place is a mile from the estuary of the Tay. The gene- 

 ral surface of the argillaceous plain called the Carse, is here 25 feet 

 above tide ; but the particular spot where the boat-hook was dis- 

 covered, is three feet high'^r, or 28 in all ; consequently, the boat-hook 

 was deposited fully 20 feet above the present level of the sea. The 

 relic itself was in no respect uncommon in its appearance. It was 

 pronounced by Rear-Admiral Sir Adam Drummond of Megginch, 

 to be such an instrument of its kind as would be used in a man-of- 

 war's launch, or a mercantile boat of three or four tons. The ap- 

 pearance of the hose gave reason to suppose that it had been fastened 

 in the usual way to a wooden shaft. 



I may here iiemark, that the antiquary makes at the first a 

 decided objection to a very great antiquity for any relic of iron. It 

 is now ascertained that, over all Europe, human society existed for 

 ages without any knowledge of metals, that there succeeded an age 

 in which copper hardened by an infusion of tin (bronze), was used 

 for making implements, and that not till these two long periods had 

 elapsed, and not till a time verging upon the historical era in our 

 country, was the use of iron introduced. It is therefore certain, 

 that this boat-hook could not have been lost or embedded at this 

 place in one of the earliest ages of a Caledonian population. It 

 hence becomes .the more desirable to ascertain if the existence of the 

 relic in such a situation, could not be accounted for without suppos- 

 ing any great geological change as occurring subsequently to its de- 

 position. We might of course assume, with tolerable confidence, 

 that the article is comparatively modern ; yet there must obviously 

 be some satisfaction in knowing by what means a nautical implement 

 had probably been embedded at so great a d^pth in stratified gravel, 

 a mile from the present shore. 



One important feature of the Carse in this district is now to be 

 adverted to, namely, a trench or ditch in which a little rill crosses 

 the plain obliquely, to join the estuary in one of those creeks locally 

 called pows. The course of this rill is not more than 150 yards 

 from the spot where the boat-hook was discovered. It is, in these 

 days of high cultivation, a narrow ditch of well-defined sides ; but 

 no one can doubt that, in other times, it would comprehend a wider 

 space. Now the bottom of the ditch at this place, is so little above 

 the level of the sea, that an abnormal tide might reach it — though I 

 am not aware of any such event having been actually observed. Let 

 us look, however, to the records of such events in early times. 

 Sir Charles Lyell, in his PrinSiples of Geology , adduces a number 



