38 Address of the President. 



carefully examined, it is certain, from indications already 

 observed, that structures of some kind will be found. "While 

 close upon our boundary, in Dowalton Loch of the neighbour- 

 ing coimty, descriptions of structures of exceeding interest were 

 brought before the late meeting of the British Association 

 by Lord Lonvaine. In this loch, bronze implements and 

 ornaments of both metal and earthenware have been found, 

 teeth and the bones of different animals ; and when the 

 soft state of the bottom wiH aUow of a closer examination, 

 other discoveries will doubtless be made. There appear to 

 have been different levels in the water of this loch ; and. Lord 

 Louvaine suggested that these may have been caused by the 

 grmvth of peat impeding the outfall of the loch ; and, as Sir 

 Charles Lyell remarked, that if the antiquarian " could deter- 

 mine a proximate date to the lowest of these dwellings, and the 

 ornaments that were found there, it would throw light on one 

 of the most interesting questions of chronology, the rate of the 

 growth of peat." 



The shores of onr bays and estuaries have also yet to be 

 searched for "shell mounds."* The interest created by the 

 examination of the kjokken moddings (kitchen middins) of 

 Denmark, has called recent attention and search for similar 

 accumulations in Scotland. Hugh Miller relates, that among 

 " a tract of sand dnnes on the shores of the Cromarty Firth, 

 immediately iinder the northern sutor, in a hiUock of blown 

 sand, which was laid open about eighty years ago, by the 

 winds of a stormy winter, there was found a pile of the bones 

 of various animals of the chase and horns of deer, mixed 

 with the shells of molluscs of the edible species." t But this 



* "Shell Mounds of Malay Archipelago." These were situate about four 

 or five miles from the sea on sand ridges, probably formerly the boundary of 

 narrow estuaries running up from the sea. They contained "cockle shells," 

 and at the bottom of one mound, containing 20,000 tons of shells, a human 

 pelvis was found, and other human remains and implements were obtained 

 from the Chinese diggers. — Athenceum, 8th March 1862. 



t Sketch-book of Popular Geology. 



