GEOLOGY. 273 



which Lyell, Godwin- Austen, and others, have argued ; and he infers 

 that the shores of this Atlantis, composed principally of granitoid or 

 metamorphic rocks, were washed on the west side by a current run- 

 ning south-west, which drifted the sediment in that direction ; and, on 

 the other, by a current running south-east, which carried sediment over 

 the then submerged British area. 



Modern Elevation of Land in Scotland. At a recent meet- 

 ing of the London Geological Society, Mr. A. Geikie, of the British 

 Geological Survey, presented evidence, recently obtained, which tends 

 to show that a " portion of the coast of the Firth of Forth has been 

 elevated not only within the human period, but even since the first 

 years of the Roman occupation." After alluding to the position and 

 nature of the raised beach which, at the height of from twenty to 

 thirty feet above the present high-water mark, fringes the coast-line of 

 Scotland, the author proceeded to describe the works of art which had 

 been found in it. From their occurrence in beds of elevated silt and 

 sand, containing layers of marine shells, it was evident that the change 

 of level had been effected since the commencement of the human 

 period. The character of the remains likewise proved that the eleva- 

 tion could not be assigned to so ancient a time as the Stone Period of 

 the archaeologist. The canoes which had from time to time been 

 exhumed from the upraised deposits of the Clyde at Glasgow clearly 

 showed that at the time when at least the more finished of them were 

 in use, the natives of this part of Scotland were acquainted with the 

 use of bronze, if not of iron. The remains found in the correspond- 

 ing beds of the Forth estuary likewise indicated that there had been 

 an upheaval long after the earlier races had settled in the country, 

 and that the movement was subsequent to the employment of iron. 

 From the Firth of Tay similar evidence was adduced to indicate an 

 upheaval possibly as recent as the time of the Roman occupation. The 

 author then cited several antiquaries who from a consideration of the 

 present position of the Roman remains in Scotland had inferred a con- 

 siderable change in the aspect of the coast-line since the earlier cen- 

 turies of the Christian era. He pointed out also several circumstan- 

 ces in relation to these Roman relics which tended to show a change 

 of level, and he referred to the discovery of Roman pottery in a point 

 of the raised beach at Leith. The conclusion to which the evidence 

 led him was that since the first century of our era the central parts of 

 Scotland, from the Clyde to the Forth and the Tay, had risen to a 

 height of from twenty to twenty-five feet above their present level. 



A FEATHERED FOSSIL FROM THE LITHOGRAPHIC LIMESTONES OF 



SOLENHOFEN, GEPtMANY. 



Notwithstanding the numerous imprints of feet, resembling those of 

 birds, found in mesozoic strata, only two unchallenged discoveries of 

 reputed bones of birds have been made in deposits older than the 

 lowest tertiary. The first of these is the Cimoliornis diomedeus, a 

 long-winged bird from the English chalk, described in 1840 by Prof. 

 Owen, from a leg and wing-bone which he considered to have be- 

 longed to " one of the longipennate natatorial birds, equalling in size 

 the albatross." The .second recorded disco verv of bird remains in 



